The Legend of the Four Swords
by Fireangel66
Summary: Years ago Sakura left Konoha and became one of the most powerful missing-nins in histroy. But how did it start? And what made her change from average medic to powerful missing-nin? The next generation will know her story. I suck at summaries.
1. The Question

**Ok, this is the first story I've ever posted, so please, please, please be nice. I'll take all reviews, even flames.**

**Ok, here goes! Wish me luck!**

The rain was coming down in sheets. The three genin hunkered down in the middle of a cave, watching as streaks of lightning and wind destroyed the landscape around them. There was no way they could have gone on in that storm, even if they were in the territory of their most dangerous enemy, without their jonin teacher and without even a bit of protection against attacks. They were stuck. If they were lucky, they'd make it out alive. If they weren't, they would beg for death.

"This is _stupid,_" one of them grumbled, slouched against the wall in a lazy posture that proclaimed her parentage in Konoha as loudly as her electric blond hair and soft brown eyes. "We shouldn't even _be_ here and now that stupid sensei of ours got us stuck here and didn't even stick around. We're going to get roasted by some missing-nin in less then an hour."

"Hey, don't think like that!" another genin said-or yelled, more accurately-indignantly. His brilliant blue eyes and pale lavender hair made it obvious who _his _parents were. "If any missing-nin comes just leave him to me, believe it!"

"Shut _up,_" the last genin hissed, throwing a look at the entrance to the cave. She had silver hair that was tied back into a ponytail, dark brown eyes, and wore a black mask and a trench coat. **(A/N: Three guesses).** "Do you _want_ to die? You're attracting attention, baka!"

"Yeah, he's good at that," an amused, older voice commented dryly. "Not quite to his father's level yet, but hey-Naruto had years of practice."

The three genin instantly got out weapons, settling into defensive positions.

"Hey! How do you know my father?" the boy demanded, looking around for their unseen enemy.

"Show yourself!" the blond girl commanded. She sounded confident, until you looked down and noticed her shaking knees. "Or are you too _scared_?"

This was met by laughter. Lots and lots of laughter.

"Guess that cancels _that _out," the silver-haired girl muttered sulkily.

"Oh, calm down, kids, I'm not here to kill you. Hell, you'd already be dead," the older voice said, still amused. A woman entered the cave, her lips curved into a laughing grin. "Put those toys away, would you?"

"It can't be…" the silver-haired girl breathed. Her kunai clattered to the ground in shock.

"Hey! I _know_ you!" the blond shouted, her eyes widening and widening. "You're…you're…"

"That's how you know my father!" the boy yelled. If there was glass around it would have shattered. "But you _can't_ be…"

"HARUNO SAKURA?" the genin shouted.

The famed missing-nin of legend grinned and flicked a piece of her trademark pink hair out of her face. "Guilty as charged." She leaned against the rock wall, stretching one leg out in front of her with a soft sigh. Emerald eyes roved over the three genin; taking note of the weapons they still held. "Will you _please_ put those away? I'm not going to suddenly skewer you, you know. I'm honestly not here to hurt you."

The three genin exchanged uneasy glances. Then, as it seemed the missing-nin really wasn't going to do anything, they put their weapons away. That didn't make any of them relax their defensive positions, though.

"Why are you here, then?" the silver-haired girl asked.

Haruno Sakura appeared not to have heard. She was examining each of them, looking them over. "You must be Ino's girl-Nara Kaida, right?"

The blond stiffened at her name, but nodded warily. It wouldn't have mattered if she denied it, anyway-the elite ninja could read each of them like a book.

The missing-nin smiled at her nod. "Yeah, I thought so. I was wondering when she was going to marry that lazy Shikamaru. Took her a while." Her gaze shifted to the boy. "You must be Naruto's kid, Uzumaki Daisuke. Hinata must have loved it when you were born. She always did love that loudmouth."

Last, her eyes moved to the silver-haired girl. "And you…"

"Hatake Haruna," the girl grumbled, before the ninja could start speculating. "You're my namesake. Okaa-san's family wasn't too pleased about it."

"Oh, dear Kami," Haruno Sakura breathed, taking in the trench coat, the pale skin and the brown eyes. "Is your mother Mitarishi _Anko_?"

Hatake Sakura nodded, used to the horrified expression her parent's names put together, combined with an actual _child_, always sparked.

"You poor, _poor_ child," the missing-nin proclaimed, contemplating the horrors a child with Hatake Kakashi as a father and Mitarishi Anko as a mother would have seen, not to mention what a child like that would actually _do._ "You never stood a chance at all, huh?"

Suke and Kai muffled their snickers behind their hands. Haruna glared.

"Never mind. What are three Konoha genin doing here? Where's your sensei?" Haruno Sakura asked.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Kai countered, narrowing her eyes.

Sakura tilted her head. "Uh, my land, remember? What do they even _teach _in the Academy these days? I got caught in the storm same as you guys, I'm guessing. Your jonin sensei probably got separated from you. What I want to know is why you chose to shelter in a cave in the Hidden Sword."

"We couldn't find anything else," Haruna explained, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "And we figured that most of the people wouldn't care about a couple of new genins here." When Kai and Suke stared at her, she shrugged, looking extremely like her father. "What? It's not like its classified information; it's not like we'd beat her in a fight, and she obviously doesn't want to kill us right now. It's better to tell her then have her torture it out of us."

"Smart little kid," Sakura commented, rolling her neck. "And you're right-you're not a threat here to anyone that matters. It's what I would have done back in Konoha."

Silence reigned in the cave. Lightning split the sky.

"Why'd you leave?" Suke demanded suddenly.

Sakura turned to him, emerald eyes confused. "Huh?"

"Why did you _leave_?" the boy enunciated, looking annoyed. "My father always said that you loved Konoha, and that everyone loved you. He never understood why you became a missing-nin."

"My father always wondered too," Haruna chimed in, watching Sakura's face. The emerald eyes looked back at her calmly. "He always tells me that any ninja who betrays their teammates are worse then trash. He told me he thought you knew that, too."

Haruno Sakura turned away. "I did," she said softly.

"So why'd you leave?" Kai demanded peevishly, sick of this evasion. "Tell us, already!"

Sakura was silent. "No ninja ever asks me that. No ninja ever asks _any _missing-nin that. They just kill first and spread lies later." She turned her head, and emerald gleamed in the black. "You really want to know?"

The genin nodded.

"Give me your hands." When the three blanched, she sighed and elaborated; "I don't want anyone else to know my story. Knowledge is power. So I'm going to make it so you can't tell anyone. Hands."

Curiosity overcame caution, and the three extended their hands.

Sakura grasped them in her own and her chakra rushed through them without hand seals, warm and binding.

She let them go, and then sat back against the wall again, breathing out a sigh.

"_Well?_" Kai shouted.

Sakura looked out into the rain. "It started like this…"


	2. The Beginning

Ok, second chapter

**Thank you so much for the reviews! I was so inspired I wrote the whole next chapter in an hour. Keep in mind that this is only the beginning of the story, and all the questions will be answered by the end. After all, what story is good without suspense?**

**Ok, here's the second chapter! Review!**

"I was running. Nothing else seemed real to me at the beginning, only the facts. I was fifteen, my name was Haruno Sakura, and I was running. It was barely night and the forest was dark…"

Blood dripped steadily down Sakura's torn and tattered clothes, covering her rosette hair with red and streaking her pale skin crimson.

_The wounds aren't serious, _the ninja kept telling herself, leaping over tree branches. Something brushed against her back and she bit back a scream-she couldn't make noise! _They aren't serious. You'll be fine; this is a misunderstanding…_

_**Then why are we running?**_

Sakura ignored the cold question posed by Inner Sakura-it brought up more of the truth then she was ready to take at this point. What point, exactly, was that? she wondered bitterly, swerving to avoid a barrage of kunai. Two struck her in the legs, and she gave a soft cry and pushed herself faster. The point when she was running from her own friends or the point when she had betrayed Konoha?

_**It wasn't Konoha we meant to betray, **_Inner Sakura grumbled angrily. _**You and I both know that. This was all **__**them.**__** Their entire fault.**_

_We knew they would be baying for blood afterward, _Sakura reminded her Inner, now forcing herself to face the truth she had avoided. _We knew we would have to leave afterward. It was just too…_

_**Tempting, **_Inner Sakura supplied accurately. _**And it was worth it. Even with this.**_

Was it?

Sakura wasn't that strong. She was an average ninja, and a gifted medic, but she wasn't strong like most of her friends. She didn't have Lee's mastery over one ninja art, or Naruto's raw power, or even Neji's brilliance and natural talent. No, Sakura was smart, and she was beautiful, but she wasn't strong. But she had managed to do something none of them had ever managed to do: break into pieces the reputation that had been imposed on her.

Sakura had left Konoha. And she knew everyone there, every one of her friends, would be asking each other the same questions: how and why. Why, why, why?

At this point, it really didn't matter. What did matter was finding a safe place to heal the wounds that slashed her stomach and back and now her legs, leaking blood all over her. What did matter was to run faster then the people behind her. What did matter was to avoid the hordes of Konoha ninja now chasing after her.

Gasping in pain, Sakura sped up and shoved her thoughts to the back of her mind. She had to find a safe place before she died from blood loss-before they caught her.

Three hours later, Sakura hunkered down in a cave, barely more then a reeking hole in the side of a mountain. There was barely room for her to fit-she sat curled into a ball, biting her lip as the raw wounds on her back scrapped against the rough stone. Body tense, she listened to the faint sounds of her pursuers as they ran farther and farther away from her, following her clones. If there was one thing she could do well, it was clones.

She took a deep breath and began to heal her wounds, hands glowing with green medical chakra. She was tired and aching, and only had enough chakra to partially heal herself.

She would scar.

_**We're already scarred, **_Inner Sakura pointed out roughly, trying to bring them out of their misery. _**Get over it. Every ninja is.**_

_Not like this, _Sakura told her Inner. _Not this bad._

_**Is that really what's bothering us? That we're gonna be scarred? **_Inner Sakura snorted, but the sound was sad.

Sakura went back to healing herself. The question didn't need an answer.

When the wounds were as healed as possible, she took a kunai from the pouch at her thigh and untied her forehead protector. She stared at it for a second, at the cool, smooth metal, at the Konoha symbol etched so proudly into the band.

She drew a long, jagged scratch across it, quickly, almost angrily, marking her new status.

Sakura curled into a tighter ball and closed her eyes to start her first night as a missing-nin, bound by no one; loyal to no one but themselves.

* * *

"Oh, _ew!_" Suke exclaimed, breaking them out of the reverie. "Just how badly did you scar, anyway? Are you hideous underneath all those clothes? And you haven't told us why you left in the first place! Who are _they?_"

Haruna whacked a palm over her face.

"Baka!" Kai slapped Suke, hard, on the back of his head. "Will you let her tell the story, for Kami's sake? And you don't just go around asking hideously deformed people if they're hideously deformed!" The girl stopped and abruptly paled. "N-not that I think you're hideously deformed or anything, Haruno-sama…he…"

"Why?" Haruna asked the gods, looking upward with a pained expression. "Just why? That's all I'm asking. Haven't you done enough to me already? No, I absolutely _had_ to get stuck with the only two teammates in the known _world_ that would actually be stupid enough to insult an S-class missing-nin when they're _genin_?!"

Sakura, watching all this, just chuckled dryly. "If nothing else, you two are certainly just like your parents," she commented to Kai and Suke. "As to the story, maybe if you allow me to tell it I could actually answer your questions?"

Suke just nodded, red-faced.

"Alright, then; where was I…" Sakura settled back against the rock wall, closing her clear emerald eyes in reflecting. "Oh, right, first night as a missing-nin. I'm going to skip ahead a little, because nothing much happens for a time. This is when things started to get interesting…"

* * *

"It was about six months after that first night, not a long time when you're living in a village, but when you're a rogue ninja-especially a new one-six months is a blessing and an education. I'd gotten stealthier then when I'd lived in Konoha, and I was working as an assassin. Most rogue do at first; it racks up cash and a girl's gotta eat on the run. Anyway, I was in the woods near Rain…"

The forest was wet, and dead silent. The trees didn't rustle, the branches didn't shake, and there was pitch darkness under the cover of the trees.

Crouching on a tree branch, clothed in a black cloak that hid bright pink hair and blended seamlessly into the night, Sakura lips tilted up a few inches into a smile.

Silence. Dark.

The attack came from behind.

Sakura spun on the ball of one foot and unleashed a storm of kunai and shruiken at the two dark-clad figures that had appeared behind her. One dropped with a cry as the weapons tore at his body, pouring his lifeblood onto the ground, and Sakura vanished as the other landed on her branch, his katana still in the downward swing of a strike.

Sakura tsked lightly.

Reaching behind her carefully, she extracted two senbon from her pouch with a black-gloved hand. Eyes narrowed, she flicked back her wrist to throw-

-and vanished as a kunai with an explosive tag hit the tree behind her, sending it into a fiery explosion of flames in half a second.

Under the cover of the trees, Sakura cursed. She'd had the angle _perfectly_! Now she could see the ninja in a tree about five feet behind her, but there was no way she could hit him from her current position and moving would mean giving it away.

_**There's a boy coming into the forest. No, not a boy-a ninja. Why couldn't we sense him earlier?**_

Sakura's head snapped up in disbelief at Inner Sakura's words. There was a ninja, his face hidden in a dark cloak similar to hers, on a branch not ten feet away. How could she have _missed _him?

She knew he saw her. He was right opposite her, lean and broad-shouldered under the cloak. She could feel his chakra now, from here-more honed, more powerful then hers, by far. He was a missing-nin, too, that much was obvious-a village ninja would have attacked by now. But was _he _going to attack?

Dammit, she didn't have time for this! She had a client!

Sakura turned most of her attention back to the other ninja still looking for her, keeping a wary eye on the unknown visitor. Her target was still in the same position, still impossible to hit-

Sakura's eyes flickered to the unknown missing-nin.

_**Oh, no. **_Inner Sakura sensed what she was going to do a second before she did it. _**Don't you even think about-**_

Sakura flicked two senbon at the unknown nin.

He deflected them instantly, of course-he'd been watching her the entire time, after all-with a silent twist of a kunai knife. Her senbon shot through the air-

-and right into the neck of her target.

He dropped like a stone.

For a second Sakura sat there in mute astonishment, unable to believe that had actually worked. Then she remembered the other missing-nin.

The one more powerful then her.

Who she'd just attacked.

Damn.

He wasn't attacking. He was still watching her, waiting maybe for the next attack, or for her to start begging. After a brief tussle with herself, Sakura picked neither.

"Thank you," she called out, keeping her voice just audible enough for him to hear. She didn't know what he was here for, after all, and if she ruined whatever plans he had she was sure she'd be royally screwed. "I couldn't hit him from here; I just needed another angle."

"Hmm." The voice that replied was velvet smooth and silky, like chocolate, and it rang with quiet reassurance of what she'd already sensed-he was powerful. "An interesting plan. But you are new to our life, yes?"

Unsure how to answer this, Sakura nodded.

"Hm." The ninja stood. "If I were you, Stranger-san, I would make sure I could sense enemies _before _they were at your throat." Suddenly he was behind her. "And get quicker," he whispered, and then he was gone.

Sakura stood staring after him for a long moment, trembling in shock or fear; she wasn't sure. After a minute she shook herself and went to finish the job she had come here to do, killing a diplomat from Mist who was-as of now-unprotected.

Only later, as she was cleaning the blood off her weapons, did Sakura think about what the mysterious missing-nin had said. When she realized what he'd meant, she threw her kunai at a tree with a cry of outrage.

"_Sense your enemies…__**before**__ they're at your throat."_

Even _here_, with all she'd improved upon, he considered her weak.

She could move through the forest soundlessly, but it took her less then a second to realize it must be a skill that all missing-nin learned sooner or later; otherwise they'd all get destroyed by hunter-nins eventually. She had the monstrous strength she'd inherited from Tsunade, but she couldn't use it here; it was too recognizable. She was a superb medic, but healing was only good for defense and you couldn't hit an enemy with a chakra scalpel if you couldn't even get close enough to touch them.

_So it's true…_ Sakura was numb. _I __**am **__still weak._

Back in Konoha, the realization would have made her cry for days. She would have lashed out; she would have cried, she would have demanded to spar with stronger friends who would go easy on her anyway…but she wasn't in Konoha anymore.

_**So?**_ Inner Sakura prompted. _**What are we going to do about it?**_

Sakura took two kunai out from her pouch. Holding one up to her face, she began to hack off her already short hair, until it was just as short as a boy's, merely a mess of silky pink spikes framing her head.

_What I've said I was going to do, but never did, _Sakura replied calmly, but inside she seared with emotion. _Get stronger on my own._

That's when she noticed something silver gleaming on the ground.

_A sword?_

* * *

**What did you think? Good? I hope so. **

**Does anyone want to guess who the mysterious ninja was?**


	3. The Draining

**I'm sorry I didn't update sooner! I was banned from my computer because my 'rents saw my failing physics grade and, well…chaos ensued. However, I am now passing with a C, so ban lifted! And you get to read my story again!**

**Thank you so much for the reviews! (I do have to confess to a very girly whoo-hoo dance complete with squealing and clapping). Anyway, here's the next chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

Sakura stared at the blade.

It was just a slim silver katana, plain and unsheathed on the moon-lit ground, but for some reason she felt the need to reach out a hand and touch it.

The minute her fingers brushed the gleaming metal, the katana _exploded_ into millions of very ordinary and very real kunai, all aiming at her body.

Sakura yelped in surprise and threw herself backward, quick enough to avoid most of the weapons but slow enough to acquire several long, nasty cuts on her arms and legs.

"_Shit!_" Sakura cursed, vaulting backwards to avoid more flying blades. By the time the vortex of kunai and shruiken had disappeared, there was nothing on the ground. She stared. "What the hell?"

_**Maybe we imagined it?**_ Inner Sakura offered unconvincingly.

_Why would we imagine a __**sword **__on the ground, huh? If I was going to hallucinate anything it wouldn't be a fucking sword, _Sakura replied absently. She got up slowly, searching the ground where the weapon had appeared. _I wonder what it was…_

_**Well, it's gone now, **_Inner scoffed, sounding just as curious as Outer Sakura. _**And we don't have time to worry about a vanishing sword. We need to get stronger, remember?**_

_Yeah. _Sakura didn't move, still staring at the spot on the ground. _Yeah, you're right. _

At last, she turned away from the spot and disappeared into the trees.

* * *

"I started to train seriously right after that. It was hard, because I had to avoid the hunters who were looking for me and I knew I wasn't ready for a serious fight with Konoha ANBU. Because of this I formed one of my most famous jutsus during that time, something to do with clones. I had to work with clones a lot since I needed to avoid fighting most of the time. I perfected my cloning technique, but I really wanted to find a way to work on my taijutsu most of all; because I relied mostly on chakra it was especially weak. But I couldn't figure out a way to stop myself from automatically using chakra whenever I felt that taijutsu wouldn't work. After around a month or so of training, someone took it out of my hands, and not in a way that was particularly enjoyable. Ironically, this where I first used my new and improved cloning technique…"

Sakura was sitting cross-legged on a wide tree branch, eating an apple. Well, more like attacking it; it was the first substantial food she'd eaten in two weeks. She didn't have time to eat often; she was on the run too much. Luckily ever since she'd cut her hair, the pink had become easier to disguise and the number of people recognizing her had dropped…

Inner Sakura moaned when the apple was gone.

_**You know, the worst thing about this whole missing-nin situation is the fact that I haven't eaten ice cream in SEVEN MONTHS! Seven months! What kind of life is that?! Huh?! **_The violent Inner ranted.

Sakura gave a mental shrug. _On the upside, it's good for dieting. _She was about half the weight she'd been in Konoha.

_**Yeah, yeah, yeah, **_Inner Sakura grumbled. _**With all the running and the fighting and that goddamn sword still popping up, it's a wonder we're not a stick figure already.**_

Sakura frowned at the mention of the sword. Ever since that night a month ago, the damn thing had been appearing everywhere, and even though she _knew _what would happen when she touched it, she _had_ to every time, and it was beginning to irritate her. She still had cuts from the last time it had appeared.

_**BOOM!**_

The rumble knocked her off the tree, sending her flying through the air. Sakura executed a neat somersault and landed cat-like on the ground, emerald eyes already narrowed. _What the hell was that?_

Sakura moved towards the sound quietly, drawing up the hood of her black coat to hide her pink spikes. She automatically hid her chakra, vaulting through the trees.

_**BOOM!**_

She managed to keep her balance this time, through sheer effort. This time she was close enough to the source to have to duck several uprooted trees. The smell of ash tinged the air.

Sakura landed on the edge of a large tree and gaped at the sight before her.

Three ninja surrounded a fourth in a decimated clearing, crawling out from under debris to reform a clumsy half-circle. Two other bodies remained still under the wreckage, obviously dead. All were unquestionably missing-nins, though none wore a slashed forehead protector like Sakura did around her throat. The three surrounding the fourth were shinobi, while the fourth was a particularly…colorful… kuniochi. (**A/N: I'll explain later, I promise**)

"You should give up, boy," the kuniochi offered her cheerful words to the leader of the five, a brawny ninja with a scar shaped like a _K_ slashing his throat. Her Japanese was musically accented. "I thought you'd realize you were out of your league the last time we met and I gave you that pretty scar."

The ninja smirked. "I brought reinforcements this time. You won't escape again."

The kuniochi just raised an eyebrow. "And here I'd thought you'd learned."

The leader growled and rushed forward with impossible speed. The kuniochi moved faster then lightning and pirouetted to kick him in the stomach as he was coming up behind her. He crashed into Sakura's tree with a force that made it split in two, and the rosette gave a curse and jumped onto the ground.

"Looks like you brought reinforcements, too," the leader spat sarcastically, jerking to his feet. "You think this five year old is gonna help you win against me?"

"Hey, I'm not that short and I'm not with-HEY!" Sakura flipped backward to avoid a stroke of one of the other shinobi's kunai and then launched herself upward as another threw a punch at her stomach.

"Don't waste your breath, babe, just do what I'm paying you for!" the kuniochi called, as she ducked and slashed at the leader of the group. "This'll be over before you know it!"

"Yeah-for you!" the leader roared. He rushed at her again, and this time the kuniochi disappeared in a swirl of fire.

_**Oh, she's paying us now? **_Inner Sakura grumbled, as she ducked another strike. _**This is new.**_

_She __**better**__ pay me if she wants me to fight these bastards, because if she thinks I'm going to take out her enemies for free she's delusional, _Sakura thought back grimly. _Now will you PLEASE shut up so I can focus already?!_

_**WELL. Someone's a mite touchy today, aren't they?**_

One of the ninja swiped at Sakura with a gigantic broadsword, cutting a deep slash into Sakura's stomach.

"DAMMIT!" Sakura summoned chakra to her fist and punched the shinobi in the chest with so much force his chest exploded. He flopped to the ground still gasping for air, and his partner skipped two steps back with a cry of horror. "You did _not _just give me _another _fucking scar!"

_**You think using chakra like that was wise, Saku-chan? **_Inner Sakura came out of her mental corner. _**What if word gets back to Konoha?**_

_We'll just have to make sure they're all dead, then, _Sakura replied absently. The other shinobi had recovered from his shock and was advancing again. _Shut UP, __**PLEASE**__!_

"You shouldn't have done that," the shinobi growled, pulling a katana from the sheath on his back.

"Bite me," Sakura spat. She really wasn't in the mood for threats.

"No, I mean you _really shouldn't _have done that," the ninja rushed her with a cry, and Sakura was too slow to block him. A deep slash cut into her left arm at the elbow, and before she could blink there was another slash there, forming an _X._ "He was my brother!"

_**Sakura, behind!**_

The ninja's sword plunged into her chest, spraying crimson everywhere.

Sakura turned her head slowly, keeping her body completely still. Then she turned completely, and pulled the sword out of her chest.

"W-What?!" the ninja exclaimed. "What _are_ you?"

He was hit from behind. Sakura's foot smashed him into a tree on the other side of the clearing.

"You may be faster then your brother, but not smarter," Sakura said, smirking at the ninja as he climbed to his feet. The second Sakura came up behind her, holding a kunai in a ready position. "It's a clone."

"B-but-" the ninja stammered. "It should have dissipated!"

Sakura smiled. She and her clone made the hand seals at the same time, under the frozen eyes of the missing-nin.

"Perfect Clone no Jutsu!"

_Poof!_

_Poof! Poof!_

_Poof! Poof! Poof!_

Six clones popped into being around the pink-haired missing-nin.

"Cool, right?" the rosette asked. "They're like a normal ninja, except when they get hit they don't die or dissipate. They have the same chakra reserves as the person utilizing the jutsu, the same knowledge, the same everything. They can only be dismissed by the wielder of the jutsu or until the shinobi runs out of chakra. I based them on Konoha Kage Bunshin clones, but I can't make that many yet." She frowned for a minute. "Still…amazing, right?"

"Impossible," the ninja breathed. "Y-you'd have to have _perfect_ chakra control! No one could do that!"

Sakura smirked. "Oh really? Let's see how good you do against me now. Or, actually, _seven _of me."

The ninja climbed to his feet. "I'll kill twenty of you to avenge Ginjiro!"

He was dedicated, but Sakura hadn't been lying about her clones. They were literally impossible to kill, unless you killed the original ninja, but which one was it?

Sakura was moving in for the killing strike, and the battle was about to end when-

* * *

"Oh, cool!" Suke said eagerly, lavender hair sticking up in an extremely Naruto-esque manner. "So that's how that jutsu got made! Dad and everyone have been trying to reproduce it for years, but no one can do it."

"Didn't you hear her?" Haruna demanded. "Perfect chakra control is required to perform the jutsu. No one in Konoha has had control any where near as good as Sakura-sama's ever since she left, not even as good as when she was still at chuunin level."

"KAMI! Why in the name of hell does it MATTER?" Kai screeched. "Let Sakura-sama tell the story! It was just getting good, anyway!"

"Thank you, Kai-chan," an amused Sakura replied. "Haru-chan is right, by the way, Suke-chan: perfect chakra control _is_ required to execute the jutsu. The ones who'd have the most luck trying it are the medic-nins. And there's really no need to call me Sakura-sama, you know. I'm not going to gut you if you don't execute perfect formal manners."

"Oh." Suke perked up. "Does that mean I can ask about Ita-"

"NO!" Kai and Haruna both shouted.

"Get back to the story, please, Sakura-sam-chan," Haruna changed hastily, giving Suke a glare of death in case he got any ideas. "_Please_."

"Ok, where was I…oh, yes…" Sakura settled back into the wall, crossing her legs. "The battle was just about to end. I had a kunai an inch from his heart when-"

* * *

"Absorption no Jutsu!"

A voice roared out the words, and a second later a hand closed around her leg.

Sakura screamed and fell forward. Her knife hit her target's heart, but she wasn't really concerned about him right now: ice was flooding through her veins and pulling energy from her body with what felt like poisoned claws.

"K-kami…" Sakura gasped, rolling up on her back. "Wha-what-"

Her clones started to dissipate.

"_What_?" Sakura gasped. She rocketed into a sitting position. "T-that's impossible! I worked on that jutsu forever!"

Quickly, she made the hand seals and reached for her chakra.

_There was nothing there._

_NOTHING. _It wasn't like her chakra had been drained; it was like it had never even existed. Which just wasn't _possible_, because without it she'd be _dead…on…the…ground_.

"WHAT?"

Someone was laughing.

Sakura looked up. The leader of the shinobi stood over her; the kuniochi was no where to be seen.

"What did you do to me?" she demanded, trying to rise. It felt like she was moving through layers of mud.

"Nothing you need to worry about," the ninja replied. Suddenly he was behind her and Sakura froze. "You'll be dead!"

The kunai had actually scrapped her throat before the shinobi roared in pain.

"Leave my kid alone, Yasunari, or you'll regret it," a disembodied female voice warned. "Now step away from her and get lost before I decide to kick your ass again."

Yasunari moved away from Sakura, picking at the hundreds of tiny black knives that were embedded in the skin of his back. They looked like senbon, only smaller, and there were nasty burns coating his skin. It looked like the knives were smoking.

"This isn't over," he warned her, or warned the other kuniochi, before taking off into the woods.

"Sorry about that, babe." The kuniochi moved into view. "He had another two in the woods and I had to take care of them, otherwise he'd be dead already and he knows it." She leaned against a tree near Sakura. "Thanks for the help."

Sakura looked at her. She was dressed in fiery red leather boots and a skirt-or a belt-the same flamboyant shade, with icy blue fishnet leggings and an icy blue fishnet tank over a black razor-back top, weapons sheathed at both thighs, both arms, her chest, her back, and even her hair, which was chestnut brown and worn in a long braid with a steel net over it, out of which stuck senbon and the other tiny knives Sakura had seen earlier. There was a tattoo of icy blue wings edged in red on her back, and silver plated her ears-not earrings, but actual silver plates that formed a delicate web over her ear. Her eyes were the same icy blue as her shirt. Watching her, Sakura didn't even know how she could _walk _in a townundetected, let alone run in the woods with hunter-nins chasing after her. Her outfit was about as compatible with a missing-nin lifestyle as a neon pink sign screaming, 'KILL ME NOW, KILL ME NOW.'

"No problem," Sakura said finally, looking up into the pale blue eyes. "That is, assuming you're going to pay me now."

The kuniochi laughed. "You must be new here, huh?"

"You said you were going to pay me," Sakura reminded her coldly. "I helped you with those other missing-nin; now _pay _me."

The girl regarded her calmly. "You gonna fight me on it, babe?"

Sakura sighed, deflating. "Not like this. What did that-that-Yasunari-do to me?"

"O-oh…" the girl pursed her lips. "He touched you, huh?"

Sakura nodded.

"Oh, fuck." That made Sakura feel better. "Well…" the kuniochi drew out the word. "Since I owe you, I guess I'll explain. This counts as payment, mind, so don't go asking me for anything new."

"What-" Sakura started to ask, but the kuniochi waved her off.

"Relax, babe, I said I would explain, didn't I? Well, this is part of it." The kuniochi leaned back against the tree, and let out a sigh, apparently deciding where to begin.

"I don't understand. Aren't you a missing-nin?" Sakura asked.

"Ok, let's start with that word," the kuniochi said decidedly. "In a village, babe, people who don't have connections to a shinobi village-or are wanted in a shinobi village for crimes-are called missing-nins. Among other missing-nins, however, the term is rogue. A rogue is any ninja that is not currently employed by a village, is persecuted by a village, or has cut ties with a village for reasons unknown. Or it can be applied to missing-nins as a whole. Got it?"

"Why rogue?" the girl asked.

"Because most missing-nin _hate_ the word missing-nin," the kuniochi said indignantly, like she was slow to grasp someone obvious. Which, actually, she was. "I mean, hell, kid, _you_ like it when people call you that?"

Sakura grimaced.

"Exactly. On to a better, more important subject." The girl swung her braid idly. "Among the rogue, there's a certain system...let's call it an honor code. It covers actions when dealing with other rogue. Two of the most important govern the rest: one, and this is the pretty much the cardinal rule; _never_, in your _life_, ask about a rogue's past. Knowledge here is power. If an enemy of a rogue finds out that rogue's past, he or she can pretty much decimate that rogue. They can lead their village to them or spread their past to other rogue. With a past come weaknesses and strengths, and if you know another rogue's weaknesses…"

Sakura nodded. She could see how that worked.

"Also," the kuniochi continued, "If you tell another rogue your past, it is considered the ultimate sign of trust between rogue. Which is why it's done like, oh, maybe once every millennia. Trust doesn't come by here that often."

Sakura nodded again. She knew that, too.

"And the second rule is the Favor Law." The kuniochi took in a breath and turned the kunai she held in her hand over her fingers.

"Among the rogue, there are alliances. Most don't last that long, and those that do, like the Akatsuki, are power-hungry and normally get blown to hell and back by the villages. But there are alliances, especially during fights. And the favor law says that if a rogue helps another rogue during that fight, that rogue is owed a favor by the person he helped."

Sakura blinked in the sudden silence. "And this favor entails…?"

The kuniochi shrugged. "Whatever the rogue who is owed wants. It could be help in another fight, training, sex, anything. But, since this is your first favor and you clearly didn't know about this, I'm counting this little tutoring session as the favor I owe. So don't go asking me anything kinky."

"O-k," Sakura said slowly. "I'll…take the tutoring. But…" she was suddenly confused. "What happens if the rogue doesn't give the other one a favor?"

"Oh, then that rogue gets killed, probably _reaaally _painfully," the kuniochi replied brightly. "The rogue govern themselves, and this is something that I've seen people drawn and quartered for. You don't mess with the Favor Law. It, like the First Law-the past one-is something that benefits everyone, so it's something everyone obeys."

"Oh." Sakura considered that. She could see the logic in it.

The kuniochi got up to leave. "Well, babe, this has been fun, but I gotta go. Luck to you."

"W-wait!" Sakura called out, scrambling to her feet. "What about Yasunari? What'd did he do to me?"

"Oh, that," the kuniochi rubbed her head sheepishly. "He…um. Well, Heremovedallyourchakrafromyoursystemforaboutsixmonthswellbyenow!"

"_**WHAT?**_"

The kuniochi winced.

"What do you mean, he _removed my chakra? _You can't take _all _of someone's chakra without killing them! It's impossible! _What do you mean I have no chakra?_" Sakura roared, past fear. She was well into anger now.

The kuniochi sighed. "It's a special jutsu that his clan had been crafting for years. It doesn't actually remove the chakra; it just represses it so deeply the ninja can't access it for a long period of time. I've had it done to me, but for me it was only about a week."

"How long?" Sakura demanded.

"About six months," the kuniochi said, resigned. "In your case, at least. You're lucky; I've seen it repressed for a whole two years."

"And what am I supposed to do without it?" Sakura wailed. She'd relied on her chakra for _years! _Since she'd realized how to _use_ chakra! How was she supposed to survive without it?

The kuniochi shrugged. "Learn to use other things, like weapons and taijutsu. Not like you can do anything else."

Looking at Sakura's distraught expression, the rogue sighed. "Alright, listen. Since it's my fault you got hit, I propose an exchange. I'll tell you my name. This isn't a favor, mind you. You have to tell me yours afterward. That's another rule when it comes to rogue: if you're exchanging information, always an even trade."

After a moment, Sakura nodded. It wouldn't solve anything, but… "Ok. Tell me."

The rogue smiled at her. "Kichi. Mariko Kichi. You?"

"Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

Kichi looked off into the distant. "Well, Haruno Sakura; I have to _go. _You'll see me again. Count on it."

The rogue faded into the woods-how, Sakura didn't know-and left her alone.

_**Well…**_ Inner Sakura drawled. _**WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!?!**_

Sakura sighed. _I really do not know. I guess we should start practicing our taijutsu._

_Fuck._

…

_**I second that.**_

* * *

"Wow…" Haruna sat stunned, silver hair a halo around her head. "That just sucks."

"Yeah," Suke piped up sympathetically. "I'm terrible at taijutsu."

"He really is," Haruna informed Sakura. "He'd be dead in an hour."

"Hey! No I wouldn't be!"

But Kai sat against the cave with wide eyes.

"HOLY SHIT! NO WAY!" she screamed suddenly, causing every other occupant in the cave to cover their ears and wince. The blond scrambled for her pack.

Sakura tilted her head, interested. "What is it?"

"My mom-always-wanted to know-why you-didn't use-chakra then!" Kai yelled back, between submersions in her bag. "She never realized!"

"What are you _talking _about?" Sakura asked, bemused.

"This!" Kai popped up with a triumphant smile, holding a worn brown book.

Sakura stared at her. "And that is…?"

"My mother's journal!"

Sakura's eyes went wide.

Oblivious, Kai made her way over to the rogue. "See, my mom wrote down everything that happened during that time, too. I haven't read much of it, but this is where she starts!"

Sakura took the book gently.

"Kai," Haruna said sternly. "Did you steal your mother's journal?"

Kai flushed. "Shut up! How is it any different then you stealing your father's stupid books?"

Sakura looked up slowly.

"Uh, 'cause I don't _steal_ them. He _lets _me read them," Haruna said hotly. "And they aren't _stupid. _They have plot!"

"Whoa, whoa. Hold on." Sakura said loudly.

All three looked at her.

"Kakashi," she said slowly. "Lets you…read…Icha Icha."

"Ummm…" Haruna looked nervously back at the rogue. "All the time?"

Silence. Really…deep…silence.

"The man is dead." Sakura said simply.

"Enough of this!" Kai said loudly. She tapped the journal in Sakura's hands. "Readitreaditreadit!"

Sakura looked out into the rain. "It's been a whole day. Shouldn't your sensei have found you by now?" She looked at the three curiously. "Who is your sensei, anyway?"

"Oh, him?" Kai asked. "He'll find us eventually. Read it!"

Sakura sighed and opened to the first page of Yamanaka Ino's journal.

* * *

**Please review. Yes or no? Good or bad?**


	4. The First Fight

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I really love hearing your feedback, so don't be shy if you have a comment that could make my story better; like I said, it's my first one. Well, here's the fourth chapter!**

"Pig could have better handwriting," Sakura muttered ungraciously, staring at the well-worn page. The book was full of tears and blotches, and there was a burn mark stinging across the back. "Ok, so….where the hell is the beginning, pig?...Oh, here we are…"

The rogue took a deep breath, made a face at the book and then started to read.

"I shouldn't be writing this down. I mean, who's going to read it, right? But I think I just need a record of what happened, just to prove that it did, to make sure I'm not insane. It all started with Sakura leaving Konoha. No, that's not true-for me, it started with that mission. I was called into the Hokage's office…"

* * *

_Taken from Yamanaka Ino's journal:_

"Ino! The Hokage wants to see us."

The blond gave a gusty sigh and turned in her chair to give Shikamaru a glare. She had tried hard to maintain her normal electric personality in the past few months, but beneath the vitality in her sky-blue eyes there was a spark of tiredness.

"What for?" she snapped.

"Mission," the lazy ninja replied easily, unaffected by her death glare. Despite his slouched posture and calm expression, nothing could mask the sharpness in his soft brown eyes, the way they took in their surroundings and remained on their guard.

Ino growled, pushing back her chair with a loud scrapping noise to move beside the tactician. "Who's us?"

"Neji, you, Kiba and me," Shikamaru yawned. "And Shizune, because we need a medic and we can't have Sa-"

Shikamaru abruptly stopped talking as a spasm of pain flickered across Ino's face. They walked the rest of the way to the Hokage's office in silence.

Neji was already waiting there, chocolate brown hair tied back in a neat ponytail and silver eyes calm. He greeted both of them with a polite nod, and Shizune gave them a quick wave from behind a towering stack of paperwork the Hokage was ignoring completely. Kiba, slouched in a corner, gave them his same rough and wild grin.

"What the hell took you so long?" Tsunade roared, glaring at both of them with bloodshot eyes. The past months had been hard on her. "Never mind; I'll just give you the details of the mission and get it over with."

Tsunade rubbed her temples for a minute, taking in a deep breath. When she next spoke, her voice was flat and emotionless.

"Your mission is the capture and retrieval of one Konoha missing-nin. If capture is impossible or the circumstances deem it liable, you are to kill your target as quickly as possible and return to Konoha."

Each jounin's posture was stiff and rigid. There were only three active Konoha missing-nins, and this team was too small to go after two of the three.

"Where?" Ino asked softly.

"Sakura was sighted near Grass nearly two weeks ago."

Even expecting it, all four jounin froze. Shizune stopped moving from behind her pound of paperwork.

"You are certain?" Neji's voice was cold.

Tsunade gave a tired nod.

"Why didn't you tell us _sooner?_" Ino exploded, blue eyes animated for the first time in a long time. "Why the hell hasn't anybody been sent after her already? It's been _two whole weeks _since she was seen!"

"Because this is an A-rank mission and I didn't have shinobi strong enough to send!" Tsunade bellowed, causing the blond to take an automatic step back. "You're not the damn Hokage, Yamanaka, so do not _tell _me what I should or should not do in regards to running Konoha! Do your damn job!"

"I'm only trying to-"

"This mission…" Neji interrupted, coolly ignoring Ino's glare. "Is A-rank?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" the Hokage snapped, slamming her hand down on her desk. It wobbled, but luckily stayed in one piece.

"But its _Sakura,_" Ino protested, face gone white as she actually considered the Hokage's words. "I mean, she may be a-a mis-a missing-she may be _gone_," the blond concluded, unable to actually say the word. "But she's not _violent. _Sakura wouldn't hurt us."

"She ripped out the chest of another missing-nin and left him soaking in his own blood in the middle of a forest. A civilian in a nearby town found him the next morning," Tsunade said the words flatly but betrayal was written clearly in her eyes. Ino uttered a faint cry, but the busty blond went on tonelessly. "The crows had been picking at his eyes. Another corpse with a kunai through his heart and multiple wounds was found next to him. From my information, there was absolutely _no reason _for Sakura to attack them."

"It's been seven months, Ino," Shikamaru murmured. "More then enough time for a person to change."

Ino shook her head emphatically. "No. Not this one. Not Sakura."

"You can't forget what she did," Neji said, even softer. "You cannot forget why we are looking for her, Ino-san."

Ino slumped where she stood. "I know."

She glanced back at the Hokage. "Why aren't you sending Naruto and Kakashi with us? Don't you think they have a right to come?"

"Kakashi and Naruto are on a separate mission, or they _would _be going with you," Tsunade explained, making an effort to control her temper. "I can't wait for their return if Sakura is to be captured before she moves on." The blond gazed at the younger ninja steadily. "I want her back as badly as you, Yamanaka. But we have to accept that even if Sakura does return to Konoha of her own free will…she still must atone for her crimes."

Ino took a breath and met the Hokage's gaze with subdued blue eyes. "When do we leave?"

* * *

"Wait," Suke broke in suddenly, fracturing the story.

Kai glared at her teammate, displaying an incredible likeness to her mother. "What? You're interrupting right at the good part!"

"Seriously," Haruna groused, propping her pack under her head and flopping down on the cave floor. "Is it even _possible_ for you to keep your mouth closed longer then two seconds?"

Even Sakura couldn't help but snort at that.

"Hey! It is _too _possible!" Suke complained, bright blue eyes flashing. "I just had a question, that's all!"

"About _what?_" Kai demanded incredulously.

"I wanted to know what Sakura-chan was doing!"

"Oh." His two teammates blinked at him, and then two pairs of brown eyes switched to Sakura. "That _is _a good question."

Suke shook his head, muttering under his breath. "_Girls_."

"You wanna know what I was doing when Ino was getting briefed?" Sakura confirmed. No one noticed the tremor in her voice or the way her hands shook as she held the book, or the sudden wet sheen to her emerald eyes.

The three nodded.

Sakura gave a shrug. "Alright. I did promise you a story, right? When did she say this was, two weeks after when I met Kichi? Let me see, I was…"

* * *

Sakura spat blood out of her mouth and fumbled for her canteen before standing unsteadily. She glanced down at the three freshly made corpses only once before turning her gaze to herself.

"Damn fucking _hunters_," she cursed vehemently, bending down to check their pockets. Most of her wounds weren't serious, but she couldn't even heal the ones that were because that damn _Yasunari_ had drained all her chakra.

"Mercenaries from Sand. Why am I not surprised?" she growled, throwing the telltale coins in her pouch. "How the fuck do they keep finding me?"

_**Maybe it's the forehead protector, **_Inner Sakura said suddenly. The two had been speculating about this ever since the battle with Yasunari.

Sakura froze. _Excuse me?_

_**Well, think about it. None of the other rogues in that clearing were wearing forehead protectors. And remember that thing Kichi said, about how a rogue's past can be found out and then used to kill them? **_Inner Sakura continued without an answer. _**It'd be easy enough for someone who knows our past, about our strength and our skills as a medic-nin, to find us, especially after the battle with Yasunari when we used our strength. And here, wearing a forehead protector with a symbol of the village you come from is like-**_

_Wearing a symbol of your past! _Sakura finished, elated with the epiphany. _That's why no one in the clearing was wearing them!_

_**Exactly, **_Inner Sakura confirmed. Then her Inner swept her gaze over the corpses of the three hunters. _**Come on; we have time for more practice. Those guys nearly had us cornered for a minute there. And if we're going to survive on only taijutsu and weapons, we're going to have to get faster then this.**_

Sakura sighed and obeyed. But not before ripping off her scratched Konoha forehead protector. Her heart gave an unsteady thump as she threw it into the trees, but she couldn't risk someone finding it among her possessions.

_Naruto, Kakashi, Ino…I miss you guys, but I had to do it._

She drew back her fist and threw the first punch.

Two hours later, she was walking in a nearby town when she saw an old, feeble man sitting at a booth. There were pots of ink and needles laid out on the counter before him.

Sakura stopped in front of his booth, an idea blossoming in her mind. "Hey. How much for a tattoo?"

The old man grinned at her. His mouth was toothless. "What'd ye have in mind?"

_**We're getting a tattoo? **_Inner Sakura demanded.

_Two, actually._

_**Why?**_

_Just because we are no longer a Konoha ninja doesn't mean we can't have an identity as a ninja, _Sakura told her Inner, offering her bared skin to the old man. He picked up a needle and unscrewed the top of a vial of ink. _And I intend to have an identity different from the one that I had in the past. _She showed Inner Sakura her idea.

_**Oh.**_ Inner Sakura considered it. _**That'll work.**_

* * *

"Happy?" Sakura asked wryly.

"Can we see the tattoos?" Haruna asked eagerly, pushing herself up from her position.

Sakura shrugged and threw off the black cloak that had hid her body. Underneath she was wearing a loose black top and nondescript black pants. There was a small silver sword embroidered over the breast of her shirt, and a katana sheathed in simple black leather was strapped to her back. The top was sleeveless, showing the two designs that were etched on each of her shoulders.

On her right, there was a curling sakura blossom unfurled on her shoulder, a soft pink edged in dark red. A deep green stem and leaves coiled around her upper arm to her elbow.

On her left, the same flower bloomed over her shoulder, but this one was deep purple edged in black, with a midnight blue stem and leaves curling around her arm. The two flowers were night and day, exact opposites, and yet so similar they seemed connected in some way-how was a mystery. Where the stem of the flower ended, a scar shaped like an _X_ slashed over the fleshy part of her skin.

"Yasunari?" Suke guessed, earning a nod from the pink-haired rogue.

"They're beautiful, but…" Kai looked puzzled. "I'm still confused with why you got them. What did you mean when you said you wanted a different identity?"

"This flower…" Sakura touched the one on her right. "Is me in Konoha. Delicate, decorative, and gorgeous maybe, but not much use. And this flower…" she touched the one on her left. "Is me as a rogue. Still gorgeous, but definitely not delicate, and with a serious poisonous edge." The rogue leaned her head back against the wall and studied the genin with emerald eyes. "I wanted to be something that was different then what I was in Konoha, different from weakness." She flashed a smile. "A night flower instead of a cherry blossom."

"I see. The tattoos are to show how you changed," Haruna said thoughtfully. Sakura nodded, and the girl's brown eyes wandered over the designs. Her gaze stopped at Sakura's left forearm. "What about that one?"

Sakura looked down at the swirling purple design that covered her left forearm. "This one you'll hear about soon. If we ever get back to the story, that is."

"Oh, right." Kai perked up. "Keep reading, Sakura-chan. We're just getting to the part I told you about."

The rogue sighed and picked up Ino's journal once more, flipping to the right page.

"Wait," Suke interrupted, before Sakura could even open her mouth. Kai lunged for him and Sakura stuck out a foot to barricade the genin from tearing the boy's throat out. "What about that sword you said you kept seeing? Does it have anything to do with that tattoo?"

Sakura titled her head. "Why would you ask that?"

"The kanji for 'sword' is right in the middle," Suke pointed out.

Sakura looked at him, lips twitching.

"You know," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe there's more of Hinata in you then I thought."

"That's not an answer!" Suke pointed out, irritated.

"No, it's not." Sakura gave him an appraising glance. "But to be a ninja, you've gotta learn to look underneath the underneath."

She shifted to glance at the brown book once more. "Back to the journal." She read over the words, and her eyes narrowed. "You know something, Kai-chan…I think I know the part you're talking about now." She sighed. "Might as well let Ino tell you."

* * *

_Taken from Yamanka Ino's journal:_

Ino grumbled as she jumped from branch to branch, blue eyes narrowed in irritation.

"Damn forehead girl," she complained, pulling a twig out of her long blond hair. "She can't just stay in one place?"

From in front, Kiba twisted around and stuck out his tongue at the loud blonde. "You don't have to shout, blondie. We're right here, you know."

"Why, you-"

"Troublesome," Shikamaru agreed, from in front of her. "We should have been back at Konoha already. I guess it's lucky for us that Sakura left such a clear trail."

Ahead of Shikamaru, Shizune winced. The "trail" he was referring to was mostly rumors, supported by lots of blood and lots of dead bodies.

"That is true," Neji agreed, from the front of the line. Akamaru and Kiba were beside him, searching with him. His Byakugan was activated and he was sweeping the surroundings. "But the trail will not matter if we cannot trace it to Sakura. The Hokage will have to order us back before long."

"Yeah, I know." Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his forehead. "So troublesome."

The mission was, in all actuality, turning into more trouble then it was worth, and all four ninja were getting both annoyed and discouraged that they would ever even _find _Sakura, let alone bring her to Konoha.

It had been four weeks since they had received their mission, and they had set out the day after. The four had arrived at Grass in a week's time only to discover Sakura was no longer there, and then proceeded to track her from Grass, to Stone, and finally Lightning, in the three weeks that followed. It seemed their friend was always just one step ahead of them in the chase.

"Anything, Neji?" Shikamaru called, resigned, not expecting a positive answer.

"Nothing." The Hyuuga's reply was quiet, but it carried throughout the line.

"Kiba?"

"Nope. Akamaru's following the scent, but it's still old."

"How old is old?" the team leader asked, already calculating.

Kiba sniffed, nostrils flaring. "At least a day or two, but not like it was before. We're catching up."

"It's just taking a while," Ino muttered, casting a look of intense dislike towards the boy and his dog.

The five jumped from branch to branch in silence for a few minutes, each one trapped in their own thoughts.

_Sakura…_Ino thought, blue eyes worried and sad as they stared through the trees. _I don't understand, forehead. I thought you loved Konoha…and then you run off and betray your village and me and your friends and teachers…, no, I don't understand._

Suddenly, Akamaru started barking. The shrill sound shattered Ino's thoughts and left her in a worse mood then before. But Kiba's next words made her breathless.

"He's found something!" the wild ninja said excitedly.

Ino's heart squeezed in her chest. _Sakura!_

He listened to his dog's barking for a minute, and then tipped his head back and sniffed the air. "Yeah, you're right, Akamaru! She is close!" He glanced back at Shikamaru, his eyes hot and excited. "She's about half an hour away. We had the scent wrong before; remember the stream we passed? She threw us off track with it and it dulled the scent, but she's close now. We should be able to catch her."

"Everyone, mask your chakra," Shikamaru ordered, instantly becoming serious. "Remember, everyone, Sakura's prime attacks are with chakra and medical techniques, so don't let her hands get anywhere close to you until Neji seals her chakra points. After that, we should have an easy time catching her. Neji, can you see her?"

A moment of silence passed. "Yes. But she is masking her chakra and her outline is foggy. She is not alone in the clearing."

"Akamaru smelled the blood," Kiba murmured. From there the conversation ended.

They approached the clearing at record speed, chakra masked and weapons drawn. Shizune moved to the back of the line and Ino crept forward to Shikamaru's side, a kunai held protectively in front of her.

The line crept forward and stepped into an empty clearing.

Well, not completely empty. The clearing was filled with corpses.

* * *

_Taken from Sakura's memories:_

Within the trees, Sakura cursed and cursed and cursed.

How in the name of all the gods had they managed to get this far? She hadn't sensed them until an hour ago. She hadn't even known they were in the area and it was obvious from the way they'd sprinted towards her location that the team of Konoha ninjas had been looking for her.

Even that timeframe would have been fine, if her target hadn't proved so ridiculously elusive and his guards hadn't been so impossibly annoying. But it had taken her longer then she'd expected to finish up the job, and now Ino, Kiba, Neji, Shikamaru and Shizune had burst into the clearing she'd just left and she had no way to run from them, not with Kiba and Akamaru so close to such a fresh trail.

For the first since she had become a rogue, she was going to have to fight her friends.

Sakura watched as her friends fanned out, watched as Neji swept the area with his Byakugan. It wouldn't take them long to find her.

Idly, Sakura wondered why Naruto and Kakashi weren't with them. Did they not want her back in Konoha?

Sakura gave herself a mental punch. It didn't hurt as much as the truth. Of course they didn't want her back, not after what she did. Not as a Konoha shinobi, anyway. So…

Were they here to capture her?

Kill her?

_**It doesn't matter, **_Inner Sakura warned her. _**If we don't step out in about three seconds Neji's gonna find us anyway.**_

Sakura sighed, took a deep breath, and stepped out into the clearing.

Ino gasped. "_Sakura?_!"

* * *

_Taken from Yamanaka Ino's journal:_

Ino gaped at her once best friend. "Sakura, is that _you_?"

The girl offered her the ghost of a smile, leaning against the tree she had materialized next to. "Hey, Ino-pig."

Ino just stared at her.

She was _so thin_, emaciated. Sakura had always been slender, but now Ino could see the bones in her wrists and legs, the tendons in her neck, the sharp points of her elbows and knees. The black sleeveless top and shorts she wore were so loose they were on the verge of falling off her body altogether. And she was _tattooed, _a curling floral design etched on each of her shoulders. Sakura hadn't even pierced her ears back in Konoha.

And her _hair! _Her hair was _gone! _Sakura had kept it short throughout the years since Sasuke had left, but now it was so short it was sticking up in wild, uneven pixie spikes around her face. It looked like it had been cut hurriedly.

It also looked like she hadn't bathed in a while. There was blood on her, everywhere, both dry and fresh. Her legs and clothes were spotted with it, her arms were red nearly to the elbows, and there was a shallow cut slicing across one sallow cheekbone. A recent scar shaped like an X slashed through the skin of her left forearm, and there were small, even more recent scars sliding over her arms and legs. The loose fabric of her top hid her back and stomach completely, and blood dripped down her black gloves and over the tips of her fingers to the ground.

The two girls looked at each other in silence.

"How have you been?" Sakura said softly. Her jade eyes, once so full of life, were expressionless. She held herself loosely, casually; arms crossed over her chest, but through the thin skein of her skin Ino could see the tense set of her muscles. She was wary of them.

Ino just choked on the words in her mouth, because even with the blood and the clothes and the tattoos, it was still so, _so _good to see her.

"Sakura." Shizune stepped closer, eyes filled with shock. "What have you done?"

The girl's eyes shifted to the medic. The corner of her mouth turned up slightly, into a harsh, mocking smile. "Survived. But that's not what you wanted to know, is it, Shizune?" Her eyes went to Neji next, who stared back at her with an unfathomable expression. Ino knew the two had trained together often. "Do not already know what I have done?"

"We are here because of what you did," Neji's voice was clear as always as he confirmed the reason they had come, and he kept his eyes on the pink-haired girl.

Sakura's lips finished curving into that hard smile. "So I was right. You are here to capture me."

"Yes." Shikamaru's voice was quiet, but his eyes were dark as he stared at the medic turned missing-nin. "Come with us quietly and we won't have to hurt you."

Sakura didn't move, but her body tightened a fraction of an inch. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Shika-kun. I like living."

"Sakura." Shizune's voice was broken, pleading.

"Shizune." Sakura's voice was quiet also, but it was ice. "No."

Neji got into a fighting stance. "Then you leave us no choice."

Sakura's smile turned frozen, and her hand moved towards the weapons holster on her thigh.

Neji rushed forward and Sakura _disappeared._

"Where?" Shikamaru barked, whipping out a kunai. "Everyone into line, _now! _Don't let her hands touch you! Neji, _where?_"

"I cant-"

"AAAH!"

Ino whirled just in time to see Sakura's punch connect with Kiba's arm, raised just in time to take the blow. Before anyone could move she disappeared and reappeared behind the dog user, her foot smashing into his ribs, and then she scissored a foot between his legs while he was still gasping with the pain and sent him flying into a tree headfirst. He slid down to the ground and slumped there, unmoving. She threw a handful of powder at Akamaru and disappeared again.

Ino spun out a handful of shruiken towards here, and flipped back into the center of the clearing to avoid them with unbelievable speed.

Shikamaru's hands came together. "Shadow Possession no Jutsu!"

He didn't even finish the seals before Sakura was gone again, and this time Ino whirled to see Shizune yelp, twisting too late to avoid a blow from Sakura's foot. Then Neji was there and she faced off against him in a crouch, spinning and flipping in the air to avoid his attacks.

"Impossible! No one can move that fast!" Ino gasped, looking from Kiba to Shizune. It had taken Sakura less then a minute to hit them both, even with everything that had happened between.

"Sakura can't," Shikamaru muttered, watching the battle between Sakura and Neji closely. His hands were still frozen one the last seal of his signature jutsu, and he cursed as Sakura's flips took her back into the shadows. Neji had already three of her chakra points. "Gotta be genjutsu…but then a strong genjutsu would be dispelled by…. _Neji_…she's using…!" Shikamaru's head whipped around. "Ino, distract her now!"

"_What?_" Ino demanded, looking from the battle to Shikamaru. Shizune had climbed to her feet, but Kiba was still slumped under the tree, Akamaru comatose beside him.

"Just do it!" Shika snapped, body tense as he watched the fighting between Neji and Sakura escalate. Sakura was trying to get to Shizune, but Neji was blocking her advance.

"Fine. SAKURA!" Ino called out, pleadingly. "Sakura, don't do this! We just want you home!"

"Home?" Ino shrieked and whirled to find Sakura behind her, face cold. "You mean my execution chamber?"

Ino threw a handful of shruiken at her and rushed forward when Sakura deflected them with her kunai. Sakura blocked it with one of her own, and the clang of metal on metal rang in the clearing.

"It wouldn't be like that!" she insisted desperately. "We'd find a way; strike a deal. Tsunade would-"

"Tsunade?" Sakura laughed, and the next thing Ino knew she was flat on her back, blood dribbling from a cut in her side. She climbed to her feet and attacked Sakura again. "What could Tsunade do? The Elders are baying for blood, the little pricks. I'd be dead as soon as I set foot in the gates."

The self-pitying tone flared Ino's temper to the breaking point, and she attacked with new fervor. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Neji and Shikamaru conversed in heavy whispers. Neji's expression was disbelieving.

"You killed ten _innocent people, _Sakura," Ino spat, voice venomous. "What did you expect them to do when they found out, throw you a party? How _could _you, Sakura? What did those people ever do to you?'

Pain flared in Sakura's emerald eyes for the briefest moment, and then Ino was tumbling towards the ground from the air, upside down. Sakura appeared by her side, kicked her upward again, and then disappeared again. When Ino hit the ground, she heard twin agonizing snaps and she screamed from the pain of it.

Shizune rushed forward, and Sakura threw out five kunai. The blunt edges slammed against Shizune's head in quick succession and one sliced the medic's shoulder, making blood spray over Sakura in an arc as Shizune fell, and as she spun closer to Ino to get out of the sun.

"I never killed ten innocent people," Sakura's voice was so full of venomous fury Ino would have shrank back, except when she tried to move white-hot pain washed over her mind. "I've killed, yes, but every ninja has and every ninja will, and there's no way to avoid it. I've learned it's better to focus on surviving them focusing on semantics."

"Semantics like these?" Ino gestured to the bloodstained corpses littered around the clearing. She had to raise her voice as Sakura flipped away to avoid Neji's attacks and soon she was screaming. "Semantics like the ones in Grass? We saw what you did to that ninja, Sakura! We saw what you did to them all! Who ARE you now, Uchiha Itachi? No, Sakura-actually, you're worse then he EVER was! At least he wanted something, was working towards something! What are you doing out here, Sakura? You're killing and killing and killing because you LIKE TO KILL! I don't know who you are anymore, but it's not who you were before! Before you weren't a monster!"

Sakura was frozen in front of her, face pale as milk and emerald eyes wide. They sparkled like jewels, and the pain that was in them echoed Ino's own. Ino stood shakily, pulling herself to her feet using the branch of a tree.

Sakura screamed and toppled forward, and suddenly Ino was holding her, arms wrapped around the pink-haired missing-nin. It took her a second to figure out the lumps in Sakura's back were kunai and shruiken, a moment more to figure out the wet, sticky substance trickling over her fingers was blood.

"Ino," the girl sobbed.

And then she was gone.

"Where is she, Neji?" Shikamaru's voice was very, very soft.

"Gone," the Hyuuga replied softly. "She is moving too fast to track."

Shikamaru nodded and knelt in front of Ino, easing her back down to the ground. He gave a low hiss when he saw her legs. Neji was checking Kiba's pulse.

"We have to get them to a hospital," Shikamaru said quickly. "Neji, can you carry Kiba?"

The silver-eyed boy nodded, and Shikamaru turned back to the blond. "Ino-"

Ino took one look at him and started sobbing so hard the tree she was leaning against her shook.

Shikamaru turned to Neji. "Shizune too? Good." He eyed the hysterical Ino. "We'll catch up in a minute."

As soon as Neji was out of sight, Ino threw her arms around Shikamaru and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.

His arms closed around her, very gently. "Ino-"

"I want her back, Shika," she sobbed, crying so hard she was shaking both the tree and him. She couldn't even see. "I want her back so much. I want the Sakura with the smile, the one who loves pink and cares for everyone but herself, not some bloodthirsty bastard missing-nin covered in blood and scars and tattoos. I want the _old _Sakura back."

"We'll get her back, Ino." Shikamaru's voice was soft. "I promise."

* * *

_Taken from Sakura's memories:_

Deep in the woods, hours away, Sakura curled into a lonely ball and cried and cried and cried, while she let her blood soak into the soil around her.

After a long time, when she couldn't cry anymore, she opened her eyes and saw the sword on the ground, silver and pure.

Sakura didn't care anymore. If this sword was going to kill her, then let it kill her. Her heart was in too many pieces to give a damn about dying. She reached out and grasped the sword by the blade.

Pain racked through her bones in purple and yellow waves, scrambling her vision and setting her nerves on fire with the feeling. At some point she realized she was screaming and stopped, because it hurt too much to scream.

When she opened her eyes, the sword was still in her left hand and there was a brilliant purple design etched into the skin of her left forearm, the kanji for "sword" right in the center edged in black.

Sakura looked back at the sword in her hand. Now it was sheathed in plain black leather, and she gently slide it out of its casing.

It was slim, silver and beautiful, and as she watched, delicate words began to flow across the blade, settling into the metal until it looked like they had always been etched there. Sakura read them slowly.

Right above the grip, it read: _By will, and by wind._

And below it, a name:

_Haruno Sakura._

* * *

"Alright." Sakura closed the book. "That's enough for today."

"What! You can't leave the story like that!" Kai protested, outraged. "You have to tell us what happens next!"

"I've kept you up for a full night and day," Sakura pointed out, eyeing them meaningfully. "You're swaying on your feet. If I tell you the next part of the story it won't even matter, because you'll crash about five minutes in."

"We will not!" Suke said indignantly. "We'll stay awake, honest! Right, Haruna?"

"Hmm?' Haruna looked up from the bright orange book she was resting on her knees.

The genin blinked and the book was gone. "Hey! What'd you do that for?!"

"Do not _read_ this!" Sakura hissed, appalled. "I can't believe your father sent you out on a mission with a copy of this thing!"

"He said I needed some entertainment!" Haruna protested. "Give it back!"

"I don't get what the big deal is," Suke supplied helpfully. "Jiraiya lets me read them all the time when my dad leaves me with him."

Sakura exploded to her feet. "_Naruto has Jiraiya watch you?!?!_"

"Who else? He's really busy all day, Sakura-chan."

Sakura paced back and forth in the cave, not appearing to have heard. "Twelve-year olds are reading Icha Icha, Kakashi and Anko are reproducing, Jiraiya is a babysitter…" she rubbed her forehead. "Why don't they just move the Ninja Academy to a porn shop while they're at it?" She sighed. "Oh, that's it. It is _so _time for bed." She collapsed on the ground and then gave the team of genins a once-over. "I _really_ think your jounin sensei should have found you by now."

"Genma-sensei will find us eventually," Kai grumbled, giving Sakura an evil look as she made her way to bed. "Do we _have _to sleep?"

"_Genma_ is your sensei?" At the three's nod, Sakura dropped her head in her hands. "This is worse then I thought. I leave for a few years and the whole village goes to hell."

"About that…the whole 'leaving Konoha' thing…" Kai said slyly. "We were just up to the part with the sword-"

Sakura lifted her head and _glared _at her. "Bed. _Now._"

The genin scrambled to obey.

Sakura sighed and rubbed her temples.

"I didn't think it was possible," she muttered. "Their children give me worse headaches then they ever did."

* * *

Hunkered down in another cave, Genma glared at the crackling storm.

How the hell had this happened? All he'd decided to do was take a little detour through the Hidden Sword to get home. And, naturally, the sky had decided to pour buckets of rain and lightning and throw out tree-ripping winds.

The gods really hated him, didn't they?

He really needed to find a way to get out of this alive. Unfortunately, he had to wait until the storm decided to clear up.

Even more unfortunately, Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Hinata, Kakashi and Anko were going to kill him when he told them that he had gotten their children lost-_alone_-in the Hidden Sword.

Yes. Yes, the gods wanted him to die.

* * *

**Review please! Don't be shy!**


	5. The Darkness

**I LOVE when I get reviews. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Because I know many of you want the story to start, and more do not even read this, I am going to disperse with further drama and begin the fifth chapter.**

**Enjoy!**

A flash of lightning cracked across the sky, and Haruna's eyes shot open. She sat up quickly, fumbling at her leg for a kunai as her eyes adjusted to the dark.

She relaxed as she recognized the cave, letting the kunai fall back into her weapons pouch. It was impossible to tell what time it was from the storm-darkened sky, but Kai and Suke still slept peacefully on the floor of the cave, and Sakura was-

Gone.

Haruna blinked in surprise. She climbed to her feet and looked around. The rogue's possessions still littered a corner of the cave, the bunched cloak covering the field pack, but the pink-haired ninja herself was no where to be seen.

"Sakura-chan?' she called out softly, edging towards the opening of the cave while she stealthily drew out another kunai. "Sakura-chan, where are you?"

"Can't sleep either, kid?" Sakura ducked into the cave and leaned against the mouth, wiping dripping pink hair out of her face.

Haruna blinked at her. "Were you out in the storm?"

The rogue shrugged. "Just for a minute, yeah." She tossed two rabbits onto the cave floor. "I thought you guys could use actual food in the morning."

"You'll get killed!"

This time Sakura laughed. Softly, though, in case she woke Kai and Suke. "It'll take more then a little lightning to kill me. Besides, I have ways of protecting myself."

"I'm sure you do," Haruna muttered cantankerously, letting her kunai drop for the second time that night. She was not the most gracious person in the morning.

"Never mind about me. What are you doing up, kid? It's barely past one in the morning." How Sakura could tell this, the girl had no idea.

"How the hell do you know what time it is?" she demanded. This early in the morning her brain had little to no control over her mouth.

Sakura held up a wrist. "It's called a watch, sweetheart. Ever hear of it?" She eyed Haruna pointedly. "My question?"

"The lightning woke me up," she admitted, settling down against the wall opposite Sakura with a sigh. "I don't sleep that deeply."

Sakura chuckled. "Neither do I. It's a trait you acquire fairly early as a rogue ninja."

The rosette stretched out a leg in front of her with a sigh. Then she eyed Haruna speculatively.

"How's your father doing? I haven't seen the Copy Ninja in a long time."

"He's good. Mom keeps him busy," Haruna admitted, and Sakura smothered a laugh. "He's still a jounin, but he doesn't teach anymore. He says that no team matches up to his first. The last time the Hokage tried to make him he did some things that Mom says he's not allowed to admit to me, so they let him go."

Sakura tried to imagine what things a mother who let her husband read her child porn would consider too abominable to tell and then decided she really, _really_ didn't want to know. "His Sharingan still working?"

Haruna nodded. "Yup, it's fine. He's going to give it to me when I get older-only if I want to though, he says," she said proudly.

Sakura cocked her head. "And do you? Want it, I mean."

Haruna blinked. "Of course I do, Sakura-chan. Who wouldn't?"

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why? I want to get stronger," the genin said, bewildered by the question. She'd have thought Sakura would have been the one who understood that best.

Sakura shook her head. "Only having power, and nothing else, is not all it's cracked up to be, kid. Sure, you're strong, but sometimes you lose more then the gains are worth. Trust me, I know."

Haruna looked at Haruno Sakura, at the tattoos and the visible scars and the knowledge in those wise emerald eyes, and decided that she did know.

"So you think I shouldn't take it?" she asked, expecting a huge resounding no and a large lecture. Her father gave her those often, trying to change her mind.

To her surprise, Sakura shrugged. "I think if you do, you should have a better reason then strength just for strength's sake. Unless you want to risk it all as a rogue, and believe me, not everyone ends up like I did in the end."

"Huh," Haruna said slowly. She didn't really understand, but she had a feeling that by the time she heard the end of Sakura's story she would. "Okay."

Sakura smiled. "Don't worry; you'll get it. It's something that you learn from time and experience, not something you automatically know. Let me put it to you this way: when you get home, ask your father what he lost to get the Sharingan, and then ask if it equals what he gained. Think about his answer and you'll know what I mean."

The two sat in silence for a moment, both looking out at the storm. Then Sakura looked back over at her namesake.

"How good's your chakra control?' she asked suddenly, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"Pretty good." Haruna shrugged, confused by the question. "Why?"

"And your chakra type?"

"Lightning. Why?"

Sakura grinned. "Perfect." She stood. "Come with me."

Haruna looked from the rogue to the storm. "Out there? No way in hell! I'll get killed!"

"Trust me, you'll be fine," Sakura coaxed, watching with some amusement as the genin scoffed. "Come on, I swear I won't let anything happen to you."

Haruna sighed, but stood. "Why am I doing this again?"

"There's something I want to show you. It's a technique I made up some time ago, and I'm not going to let it go to waste when you're the perfect one to use it." Sakura eyed the genin. "Come _on, _Haru-chan."

The girl grumbled but followed her, and despite her complaining, she was excited by the chance to learn something from the infamous Haruno Sakura. She had a feeling it wouldn't be disappointing.

"I _knew_ you guys were hungry," Sakura commented, glancing down at the pile of discarded animal bones and skin. There was barely a scrap of meat in sight. "Now that we're done with lunch, you about ready to hear the next part of the story? Haru-chan, careful how you hold that," she added, scanning a critical eye over the genin.

Haruna grumbled, shifting the piece of meat she held so its heat didn't burn her hands, which were at this moment covered with cuts and scratches and burns under snow-white bandages, the knuckles scrapped nearly raw.

"Yeah!" Suke chirped, casting a curious look at Haruna's ravaged hands. "We were just at the part where Nara-san was so mean to you and you were bleeding all over the ground and then you had just found the sword when you made us go to bed which wasn't very nice either-"

"Suke, breathe," Kai instructed, rolling her eyes at her hyperactive teammate. Give the boy a little food and he went crazy. "She knows where we are."

"But thanks for the reminder, Suke-chan," Sakura cut in, flashing the boy a crooked smile. She leaned back against the wall in her normal position. "Ok. This next part gets a little crazy, so pay attention, alright? We met another member of the Four soon."

"_Another_ member? Oh, right, cause we already met Kichi," Suke realized, scooting closer to Sakura with an eagerness that reminded her of a puppy. "She sounded cool, Sakura-chan; much cooler then what they say about her at the Academy. So who do we meet next?"

Sakura flashed a predatory smile and began the story.

"We'll start back at the beginning. Now, it's only been eight and a half months so far that I've been a missing-nin, right? At this point that gives me four and a half months until my chakra returns. We left off right after the fight with Ino, and my sword had just appeared to me…"

* * *

Sakura choked in pain and tried to breathe evenly through her nose. Her fingers trembled as she slowly, carefully, grasped hold of another shruiken. Steadying herself, she pulled the metal from her flesh.

A line of white fire shot through her back, and she nearly doubled over. Her vision went black and then slid in and out of focus when it returned. She felt a new trickle of blood run down her skin.

She tossed the shruiken onto the pile of blood-soaked weapons to her left.

"Neji can still aim," she panted, gritting her teeth. She pinched a kunai between two pale, shaking fingers and pulled.

_**Fuck Neji,**_ Inner Sakura snarled. She was trembling with rage inside her mental cage.

"We-did-" Sakura hissed through her teeth and spat a curse. She threw the kunai onto the pile and tried to ignore her own rage. It was far from easy. "Remember?"

_**You know what I mean, **_Inner Sakura growled, in no mood for distractions. _**How COULD they, Saku-chan? How could Ino call us a monster? They don't know ANYTHING about what happened! How could they say that WE'RE the monster?**_

Sakura turned the last shruiken over in her fingers, looking at the blood that stained the metal. A breeze began to waft over the trees, bending the tops backward.

"They don't know why we killed them," she said quietly. "It's a natural response."

_**She called them INNOCENT, Sakura. INNOCENT! How could she possibly say that? HOW?**_

Sakura breathed in deeply as the rage washed over her, tinting her world purple-red at the edges. The wind screamed around her. "Let it go," she murmured. She didn't realize she was clutching something tight in her fist, and she didn't realize when the wind stopped. "Let it go."

Inner Sakura took a deep breath and her peripheral vision returned to her.

_**Ow! You're hurting that hand, you know, **_she complained.

Sakura looked down. She clenched the sheathed katana in her hand so tightly her knuckles were whiter then her skin and the tendons were screaming at her.

_Oh. _Sakura loosened her grip almost absently and frowned at the blade in her hand. _What are we going to do about this thing?_

Inner Sakura pondered that for a while. _**Unsheathe it again, **_she suggested finally. _**Maybe there's a mark we missed that we can trace.**_

Sakura slid the katana out of its smooth black leather sheath. Again it glimmered silver in the night, and again there were no marks on it but the words etched above the grip and a swirling design along the length of the blade that matched the one inked on her left forearm.

_Nope. Nothing, _Sakura told her Inner. _What do we do now?_

_**I can see that much for myself, thank you, **_Inner Sakura huffed petulantly. Then she considered the question. _**We need to do research on this…**_

_No shit, _Sakura said sarcastically. Her Inner ignored her.

_**Let's start with the library in the nearest hidden village. This is…**_

_Lightning._

_**Right. We'll see if they have anything on this sword. I doubt they will, but we should check, and then ask around-discreetly.**_

_**.**_

Sakura considered the plan. She wasn't very optimistic about finding anything about the sword in Lightning, but they could always look in other places.

Inner Sakura's tone was indignant when her outside half didn't immediately respond. _**Honestly, Saku-chan, I want to find out what this thing is. It's starting to freak me out.**_

_Me, too. _Sakura sighed. _Fine. Let's go._

_**Sakura-**_

_I know, I know._

The rogue made a face and then started to wrap the bandages tightly-_carefully_-around her back.

It hurt, but she held back most of the screams.

* * *

Kai made a face. "Ew. That's so gross."

Haruna and Suke were staring at her with shocked expressions. "_What?_"

"You have _no _compassion!" Haruna accused, disgusted with her teammate. "Do you even care that Sakura was bleeding to death?"

"Of course I do! It's just, well…" the blonde winced. "Does she have to do it so…gross?"

Haruna hit her.

"Hey!" Kai dived at her silver-haired teammate.

"_We_ care that you were dying, Sakura-chan," Suke announced proudly, giving Kai a dark look and Haruna a nod of solidarity as his two female teammates proceeded to run around the cave engaged in an exchange of quite girly slaps and yells that most definitely did not benefit a ninja. "But…weren't you mad at Nara-san? Didn't you want to…like, clear your name?"

Sakura stuck out a foot and tripped Kai as she came running around the bend. "Of course I wanted to, but I couldn't," she told Suke with a shrug, catching Kai with one hand and Haruna with the other. Both girls yelled and squirmed, trying to reach each other. Sakura held them above the air out of reach of the other and continued to speak calmly. "I mean, my back was practically pouring out my lifeblood, remember? Plus I had the sword to consider. I needed to figure out what it was."

"Why was the sword so important?" Suke asked. "I mean, couldn't you have just waited?"

Sakura stuck out her left arm so Suke could see her swirling tattoo. Haruna wiggled uncomfortably and the rogue shook her briskly. "Most blades don't tattoo you if you pick them up. What if the sword was a killing device? I had to find a way to figure out what it was."

"Did you?"

"Kids today have no damn patience," Sakura muttered rather hypocritically. She looked at Kai. "_You_ are _so_ your mother's daughter. And _you_-I thought I told you not to use those hands." She set the two of them down. "_If _I can _ever_ get back to my story in _peace_, I will tell you when I finally got some good information about my sword."

"But you were so angry-how'd you get rid of the rage?" Kai asked, making a face at Haruna and rubbing her arm. Haruna stuck out her tongue as they both took seats beside the rogue.

"Well…it didn't really go away until around four months later, when I ran into some Rock rogue that had kicked my ass a month or two before my fight with Ino," Sakura admitted, with a slightly guilty shrug. "Ironically, this was also the day Kichi found me again, and the day that marked the end of my first year as a missing-nin. It was also the first time I found some useful information about my sword."

Kai whistled. "Busy day."

"Yeah, it was," Sakura agreed. "It was also the day I turned sixteen…and when I met someone who proved to be…interesting."

"Who? Oh, oh! Is it that other member you were talking about?" Suke asked eagerly.

Sakura grinned. "Yup."

"So what happened?"

"Well…" Sakura considered.

* * *

"Kichi found me again right after I met up with the guys from Rock-poor boys-and she stopped by to talk to me. She looked exactly the same and she was just as damn annoying as always…"

"You look like hell, babe."

Sakura shrieked and threw a handful of shruiken before she recognized the tall, leggy rogue who stood in front of her.

"Bite me," she snapped at the eccentric missing-nin, who dodged the weapons with annoying ease. "It's a suckish winter already and I don't need you to make it worse."

Kichi looked her over and raised an eyebrow. "Hello, Kichi-chan, ever so lovely to see you again. Might I add that you radiate a beauty that rivals the stars? Why thank you, Sakura-chan, that's just so sweet of you. For the love of Kami herself, honey, when was the last time you took a bath?"

Sakura gave her a glare that could have set a city on fire. She was almost convulsing with cold, being dressed only in her normal black attire that offered absolutely no respite from the ice and snow coating the ground. She was covered in blood and cuts from her interlude with the Rock rogues, and right now she _really, reaaaaaaaally_ didn't want to see the very reason she couldn't just perform a simple fire jutsu. "Don't you have someplace else to _be_?"

Kichi gave a shrug, pale blue eyes sparkling in amusement. "Not really, no. You got inked since the last time I saw you-and the sword's new. What little bugger you steal that from?"

"None of your damn business," the rogue snapped. She hadn't found anything on the sword yet and it was making her edgy. As was the increasing tendency of wind that seemed to be happening around her; it couldn't be this windy everywhere she went, even in winter. "_Why are you here_?"

"Touchy, touchy. Didn't you ever learn to be patient?" the rogue chuckled.

Sakura was going to stab her in a minute.

"Alright, alright," Kichi said hastily, obviously sensing the killer intent rolling off the rosette. "I just wanted to check in, make sure you weren't dead. But now that I see you…come with me."

"No chance in hell," Sakura said flatly. Sure, the rogue had tutored her (and it had come in handy, damn her,), but that didn't mean she _trusted_ Kichi. She didn't trust anyone but herself, all two of her.

"Oh come _on_! I just want to talk to you," Kichi said impatiently. "And make sure you don't freeze to death. You may not have noticed, but your lips and fingertips are bright blue."

Sakura _had _noticed, and as she had lost feeling in her fingers about an hour ago she really didn't need reminding. She shook her head stubbornly at the older rogue.

"Fine." Kichi put her nose in the air and turned away in a mock huff. "I'll just take my offer and the big, heaping meal I was going to pay for somewhere else, shall I?"

Sakura was in front of her so fast she gave herself whiplash.

"You have food?" she demanded. "_Real _food?"

Kichi grinned. "_Hot_ real food," she confirmed, obviously enjoying herself. "_And_ that most wonderful of things, the delightful, delicious, delectable product of alcohol. All in a nearby, _safe_, place."

Sakura was tempted to refuse, but the last time she had ate it had been a stolen bowl of porridge in Snow two weeks ago that had been so watery it was practically soup. (**A/N: I don't know if they have porridge in Japan, but work with me here.**) So instead she asked suspiciously, "What's this 'safe' place?"

"A bar in Rock called Frost," Kichi said innocently, examining one of the small ornaments in her chestnut braid.

"A _bar_?" Sakura echoed incredulously. "Do you know how many shinobi hang out in bars? There's no way you're getting me to go in there."

Kichi shook her head. "Trust me; no village shinobi will be at Frost."

Sakura scoffed. "You can't guarantee that, Kichi."

Kichi flashed a grin. It made Sakura very nervous when she did that. "Yes, I can. Frost is a rogue bar, Haruno Sakura. Not a single village shinobi even knows it exists."

* * *

Two hours later Sakura found herself by Kichi's side in the village of the Hidden Rock, her body so tense it was on the verge of fracturing into pieces. It didn't help that her body was so cold it was actually convulsing.

Finally, Kichi stepped off the main street and turned into a narrow alleyway. Sakura followed after her.

A bulky man appeared in the middle of the alleyway, his features clothed in shadow. He stood before a wooden door in the side of the alley.

"Weapons," he ordered quietly, once they were close enough to hear.

Sakura stared at him wordlessly.

"She's new, Botan," Kichi explained brightly, showing him a kunai strapped to her left inner thigh, the katana on her back, and a pack of senbon strapped to her boot. Sakura relaxed minutely as her companion greeted the shinobi by name, but she kept her eyes on the massive figure. "It's customary to show three weapons when entering a place owned or controlled by other rogue," she explained to Sakura.

"You've never been here before?" the guard asked. He barely managed to keep scorn from his tones. Apparently new rogue weren't worse his time.

"Like she said," Sakura's voice was level, calm. Her body quivered from the cold, but otherwise she held absolutely still. "I'm new."

"Weapons," the guard ordered again.

Slowly, Sakura opened both hands to show a pile of gleaming miniature kunai in each palm. They were something she had based after the tiny ornaments in Kichi's hair, but up until now she had forgotten to use them. Then, keeping her gaze on the guard, she inclined her head towards her katana.

The guard snorted as he turned. Sakura expected him to open the wooden door, but he heaved aside a section of the stone street. Beneath the slab was a series of winding steps. "Just how new _are_ you, anyway?"

Sakura thought about it, and the date hit her like a rock.

"A year," she said quietly, following Kichi down into the abyss of steps. "A year ago today." _My birthday._

Of all the days she could have left Konoha, it was always a bitter irony in her stomach to remember that it had been her fifteenth birthday.

Resolutely, she put it out of her mind as she followed Kichi down the spiraling steps. Soon she could hear a faint pulse, which increased the deeper they went.

She barely had time to wonder if this was a trap before she was in a large room lit with artificial blue light and filled with people, all rogue, all armed, some drunk, and all scantily clad.

"Haruno Sakura," Kichi murmured in her ear, not near enough to set off the panic most rogue developed when someone got too close. It was a symptom of being prey. "Welcome to Frost."

There were a lot of images to take in: the people, the way all the tables and chairs and furniture seemed to made from ice, the pulsing bass rhythm swaying her feet, but the first thing Sakura noticed was _warmth._ It hit her like a physical thing, sending needles of pain shooting through her numb body and making her gasp as the convulsions increased as her body struggled to regain its heat.

Kichi towed her towards a booth in the corner. Oddly, the seat was warm, and soon Sakura realized why: the booth was made from heated crystal, not ice.

"Wait here: I'll get you some food and then we'll talk," Kichi ordered her, shouting above the music. She swiped a glass from a passing girl, snarling when she protested, and handed it to Sakura. "And drink this. I don't know what it is, but it'll be good for your system. You know, if it's not poison or something." She disappeared.

Sakura took a cautious sip. The delicious taste of rum and Coke swirled in her mouth. The warmth of the rum spread through her body, soothing the last of the tremors.

Sakura downed the whole glass.

_**Holy hells, rum tastes good, **_Inner Sakura sighed happily.

Sakura really had to agree.

"You look very different since the last time I saw you, Sakura," a smooth baritone voice remarked. "You have grown in half a year."

Sakura twisted towards the voice with a hand on her katana, but let it fall when she realized who it was.

"You!" she exclaimed.

The black-clad figure slid into a seat beside her. Like the last time she had seen him, almost exactly half a year ago in a clump of forest near Rain, he wore a hooded black garment that covered all of his face but his full lips, which were of the moment twisted into an amused smile.

"I am glad you recognize me," he replied smoothly, unaffected by the glare of death Sakura was sending his way. "You were so unobservant the last time we met I was beginning to think I had chosen wrong, Sakura." Noting how her gaze darted over the crowded room, he mused," I see that has changed."

Belatedly, Sakura realized that he had just used her name- twice. "You know who I am?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

"Of course," the man replied lightly. "You were rather shouting it in Rain, after all. And if I was completely stupid, the pink hair makes it quite obvious." Talking over her splutters, he added, "Though you have made progress. Your forehead protector is gone, you've gotten faster, and I do like the tattoos."

"No one gave you the right to criticize my strength!" Sakura snapped, eyes blazing. She felt like a racehorse that was getting inspected for sale. "Who asked you, anyway?"

"This one, though…" the hooded man continued, going on as if she hadn't spoken. His finger tapped the swirling purple design on her left forearm. Sakura drew back instinctively, but not before noticing the uncommon warmth of his skin. "This one is different. So it has come to you at last."

"No one said you could touch me!" she hissed, hands balling into fists. Then his words hit her mind like an avalanche. She blinked at him. "What? You mean…" One hand drew up to grasp the hilt of her katana.

The man's smile derived into a full-blown grin. "Such a beautiful weapon, really, Sakura. It chooses its wielder well, I think." He casually reached up a hand to pull his hood tighter around his face. "It's windy in here, don't you think?"

They were in an underground rogue bar without as much as a breeze. Sakura's emerald eyes narrowed to slits at the reference.

"You know something," she stated, her voice low.

He handed her a cup of something hot, apparently from thin air. Sakura took it without thinking; shivers still wracked her frame. "Drink. It will help."

He took a sip of something from a flask and surveyed the crowd, seemingly bored. Just as Sakura was going to grab him by the throat and demand answers at sword point, he began to speak in a quiet, but still casually polite tone.

"There is a man in the village, called Hiroshi." He watched as a rogue woman clothed in elegant silk passed by in a cloud of lustrous golden hair. A scar traced the left side of her face from temple to chin. "He knows a great many old legends that are no longer known. He once told me one about a mysterious swordsman who appeared one afternoon in spring with a strange sword and an odd tattoo swirling down his arm. Sadly the man died, and the blade was never found." He drank from the flask again, watching as the scarred woman winked at a grizzled man. "Go to him on the western side of Rock, and he will have much to say about your newly found blade, Sakura-hime."

He stood and stowed the flask in his coat. As he made to leave he bent down, and whispered in the astonished girl's ear, "Guard your left side. You leave yourself open far too much. Oh, and I'd hurry. He's only going to be there an hour." Lips brushed her cheek and Sakura jerked back, exclaiming in surprise, but as she swung around to look at him she saw a flicker of light and then he was gone.

She sat openmouthed for at least a minute before her mind returned to schemes. Absently, she looked down at the tattoo on her arm. There was a secret there, and Sakura wanted it.

What was going on?

"Here you go, babe," Kichi said, sliding something in front of her and then collapsing beside her. She looked interestingly at Sakura's glass. "Where'd you get that? They don't sell coffee here."

Sakura shrugged. Then she looked down at what Kichi had brought her and her jaw dropped. Three bowls of delicious looking food and a healthy loaf of bread sat in front of her, all steaming and smelling mouthwatering.

Sakura barely bothered to grab chopsticks before she dove into the meal like a rabid bear, shoveling bite after bite into her mouth.

"Kishiifinkilosheyu," she mumbled through a mouthful of the most delicious bowl of udon that had ever been made in the entire history of udon.

"_What_?"

"I _said-_" Sakura swallowed. "Kichi, I think I love you."

The rogue grinned. "You mind sharing some of that, then?"

Sakura's goodwill vanished. "Get your own," she snapped, tucking the bowls safely behind her arm.

Kichi chuckled and stretched, casting her gaze around the room.

"Huh," she remarked. "I didn't expect them to show up here. They're supposed to be in hiding."

"Who?" Sakura asked, swallowing a lump of food and then barreling through the second bowl with barely a pause. She took a big gulp of her coffee (her delicious, delicious coffee) and followed Kichi's eyes with her own.

Sakura sprayed coffee all over the table.

"No way," she murmured, emerald eyes widening to plates. "I-it can't be…"

Sitting at a table in a tucked-away corner, safe from prying eyes, sat someone whose appearance shook Sakura to her bones.

Someone she never thought she'd see again.

Someone she thought was dead.

_Uchiha Itachi._

* * *

"Why did everyone just go _crazy_?" Suke demanded.

Kai and Haruna were practically turning cartwheels in the cave, whooping loudly at the top of their lungs.

"Finally, finally, FINALLY!" Kai exalted. "And I thought you were leaving him out of the story!"

"Don't _say _things like that!" Haruna scolded, throwing a panicked look at Sakura. "She might decide to!"

"Oh HELL no!" Kai protested. "He's the sexist par t of the story so far!"

"He's only been in it for three seconds," Suke pointed out sullenly. Sakura was silently shaking with laughter against the wall, biting her lip.

"Yeah! Three seconds of _heaven_," Kai countered dreamily. "Have you seen his hair? And his eyes? And dear gods, his _muscles_? And let's not forget-"

"Alright, alright," Sakura cut her off, laughing. "That's enough of that. Back to the story."

* * *

Sakura watched him, trembling.

"He's supposed to be dead," she whispered, through lips gone numb. "He _swore_ he was dead."

"Oh, right; you're from Konoha. I keep forgetting," Kichi yawned, apparently unsurprised. "Banish everything you've heard from your mind. He's obviously not dead, and I would care to bet it's going to take him awhile to get that status."

"But…_how_?" Sakura breathed, beyond shocked. Her hand was clenched around the hilt of her katana.

Kichi shrugged. "You could ask him. But as it's technically part of his past, you'd be breaking First Law." She raised an eyebrow. "My guess is that he faked it."

Sakura watched the rogue from across the room. He sat in an apparently relaxed posture on a crystal bench, one arm thrown lazily over the head of the booth. He was not in his Akatsuki cloak but simple black pants and a black shirt that conformed to the shape of his muscled chest. Ebony hair was tied back in a long ponytail and tossed carelessly over one shoulder, blue light shining along its length and on his tanned skin. His eyes were cloaked in shadow.

She couldn't see his features clearly from here, but even so his resemblance to Sasuke made her uneasy, though Itachi was clearly the more dangerous of the two. She had heard Sasuke swear, with sick relish, that Itachi was dead. He'd remained in Konoha for half a year after this pronouncement, before abruptly leaving two weeks later. Sakura had left herself the next year.

Suddenly Itachi stood, and Sakura had her katana half out of its sheath before she realized what she was doing.

"Gods, calm down," Kichi said, looking at her in confusion. "What's the matter with you?"

"He almost killed me about six times," Sakura murmured, her voice low. Her eyes watched Itachi as he moved smoothly through the crowd. He was coming towards them.

"Yes, when you were a village shinobi," the kuniochi said impatiently. "Rogue don't kill other rogue at random. Unless you've done something absolutely unforgivable or you have something he desperately wants, you're safe." Her face brightened. "Oh, he's coming to talk! Good-I haven't seen him in forever."

As the infamous rogue made his way towards them, Sakura slowly-and with _extreme_ reluctance-let go of her katana and placed her hands on the table. She fought the urge to ball them into fists.

Itachi reached their table, standing just outside the swarm of people that milled around them. His eyes were crimson bright.

"Kichi," he said smoothly, nodding in greeting. "How long has it been?"

"Oh, you know exactly how long," Kichi retorted, leaning forward to jab a finger in his face. "That job wasn't finished when you left, you know. I had hordes of hunters chasing after me for months."

Itachi shrugged his broad shoulders. "I could not risk exposure. It is odd to see a dead man walk." His crimson eyes shifted, at last, to Sakura.

She smiled tightly. "Hi," she said, doing her best to keep her voice polite. "I believe we've met before."

Itachi tilted his head, his eyes steady on her face. Out of habit Sakura avoided them.

"So we have," he remarked at last, sliding into a seat next to Kichi. "But then you worked for Konoha, did you not?"

Sakura shrugged. "Well, I don't now."

She saw the question flare in his eyes briefly, but he did not ask. Itachi had been a rogue far too long to not know about First Law.

Something thumped into the seat beside her; Sakura's hand flashed to her weapon's pouch in seconds and then stopped. _Calm down, _she told herself firmly. Then she turned her head.

"No! No way!" she exclaimed. "I _watched _you die! I nearly killed you myself! How can _you_ be _living_?"

Kisame (**A/N: His last name totally escapes me right now**) grinned at her, showing sharp teeth. He wasn't in his Akatsuki cloak either, but in a dark gray shirt and pants.

"Konoha shinobi have such lousy aim. It's not my fault you guys can't do a job right," he said wickedly. He clearly recognized her as well, or he at least knew she was from Konoha. "Hey, Kichi." He looked at her. "Who are you, again?"

Sakura groaned, framing her face in her hands and ignoring the question. "Don't tell me _all _the Akatsuki are still alive. If you tell me Sasori is with you I will be very upset."

Kisame snapped his fingers. "Now I know who you are! The Kyuubi's teammate, Haruno Sakura. I thought you were loyal to Leaf."

"Obviously not, Sharkface," Sakura snapped, emerald eyes blaring at him. "Go away."

"That's not a very good way to speak to rogue stronger then you," Kisame told her pleasantly.

"You're right, it's not," she replied, just as calmly. "It's a good thing I can't find any over here, isn't it?"

Kisame growled. "Why, you-"

"Kisame." Itachi interrupted, fixing his partner with a crimson stare. "Go get us drinks."

"I'll come," Kichi said brightly, to Sakura's horror. "Chizue is on duty and she always gives me extra beer. Plus I haven't seen _you _either." She walloped Kisame in the ribs as they stood up to leave. "Where the hell have you two been?"

"Ow!" the shark-nin complained as the two of them walked off. "That hurt, Kichi!"

Sakura spouted off a rivet of mental curses as soon as the two of them had disappeared from her sight.

_Oh, get over it!_ she told herself, disgusted. _You're a rogue like him, so stop acting like such a weakling and get a backbone, already!_

_**Plus, have you seen how HOT he is? **_Inner Sakura put in. _**And we have him all to ourselves!**_

Sakura hit her inner self with a mental club.

"So." She looked at Itachi, who regarded her with his intense crimson stare. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

A corner of his mouth lifted. Sakura tried to keep a bland face as Inner Sakura swooned at the sight of his smile. "So I keep hearing," he replied in his smooth, chocolate baritone. "But I have heard many things that are untrue. Haven't you? For example, Haruno-san, you yourself are supposed to be a Konoha spy."

"Touché," Sakura muttered. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him and brutally banished Inner Sakura's suggestion to stick it somewhere else. "Are all rogue this touchy when you ask them a simple question?"

"You realize this definition applies to you as well," Itachi pointed out.

Sakura glared at him. "I'm normally touchy. It's part of my charm."

Itachi chuckled. Sakura found that it was a very, very good sound. Under the table she pinched herself and told herself virtuously that that thought had been Inner Sakura's.

_**I AM you, sweetie.**_

Sakura ignored her alter persona.

"I'm really supposed to be a Konoha spy?" she asked, to take her mind off the images currently racing through it. When Itachi nodded, she chuckled hollowly. "That's a laugh. They wouldn't let me back into that village if I begged them and brought them _you. _Well," she amended, not noticing Itachi's eyes flare with sudden interest. "They'd let me in dead."

"I am curious, Haruno-san," the infamous shinobi remarked lightly. "Were it not a capital offence, I would ask why that is." He leaned toward her, and caught her gaze, the three tomae spinning.

Sakura stuck out her tongue childishly. "Oh, don't try that trick with me. I'm immune to Sharingan."

Shock flickered in the Uchiha's eyes, and then the interest in them flared brighter and he sat back in his seat, watching her.

"Sakura-san," he said smoothly, catching her gaze with crimson eyes that glittered. "Kisame and I are staying in a hotel across the street from here, and we would much enjoy some…company. Are you interested?"

For a moment Sakura was speechless, and then she had to work to keep the fiery red blush that came over her from her cheeks.

* * *

"Wait, I'm confused," Suke broke in, big blue eyes puzzled. "What does he mean by 'company'? Why would Sakura-chan blush because of that?"

All three female occupants of the cave stared at him with the same expression, one that said _You are __**so **__stupid_ and _I am so not explaining this to you _simultaneously.

"Ignoring that…" Sakura said slowly. She wondered how a child who had spent unsupervised time with Jiraiya could possibly ask that question, and then shook her head in disgust. "Back to the story…"

* * *

Sakura was desperately trying not to blush, but it wasn't going well. Quickly she reviewed the conversation in her mind. Had Itachi _really _said what she thought he said?

He had.

Now, Sakura knew she wasn't ugly. And it wasn't like she was a virgin, either. But she also knew, just from her previous encounters with the Uchiha, that Itachi wasn't the type of person to just randomly ask a person for sex. Therefore, he must have had a reason…

_**WHO CARES?!?! HE SAID TO JUMP HIS BONES, SO JUMP HIS BONES!!!**_

It must have been because of her immunity to Sharingan, she decided, ignoring her horny inner persona. No one he had ever met could withstand his bloodline, so naturally it would be a point of interest for him. She knew he was curious about her background, however well he hid it. Since he couldn't use his bloodline limit, and he couldn't ask her directly, offering her his "company" was most likely his way to probe for information without breaking First Law. As far as she knew, there was only a law against directly _asking _about a rogue's past. There was no law against trickery, bribery, or extortion-which fit, considering they were all criminals anyway.

Sakura looked down, scheming how to best refuse the offer without getting killed. As she did so, she happened to glance down at her watch.

"Damn!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "Shit, I have to go." Hurriedly she bowed to the Uchiha, not really noticing what she was doing. "It was fun talking to you, Itachi-san. Thank you for the offer, but I have somewhere I need to be. Tell Kichi I had to go and I'm sorry she didn't get to talk to me about whatever it was she wanted." Looking at her watch again, Sakura cursed again and flew out of Frost before she noticed the shocked look Itachi was giving her, an actual emotion present on his face for about five seconds before he closed it again.

"Haruno Sakura…" he mused. He reached down to pick up a piece of silky pink hair from the table. "Interesting."

* * *

"Damn, damn, damn…" Sakura muttered as she flew down the streets of Rock. "He better still be there…" She had ten minutes to get to the western side of Rock and meet Hiroshi before he disappeared.

She was just entering into the west side when a barrage of weapons flew at her from all sides. Sakura pushed off a wall and flipped sideways through the air over the weapons, landing on her hands on a rooftop. She pushed herself to her feet and pulled her katana out of her sheath, running through the shinobi who'd rushed her from behind.

Roughly twenty shinobi melted out of the shadows to advance towards her, weapons in hand. She turned her katana in a lazy circle, flicking blood off the blade.

"Hiroshi!" she called loudly. "If these are yours, I have questions for you. Come out before I decide to stop being nice."

"You're lucky I owe Ghost a favor, girl, or I'd kill you where you stood," a voice snarled from the darkness to her side. A gray-haired rogue stepped from the shadows, dressed all in black. "Doesn't anyone teach new rogue manners anymore?"

Sakura sheathed her katana. "I didn't come for a lecture."

"No. You came here for answers." Hiroshi shook his head, curling his lip. He held out scarred hands. "Well, let's see it, girl. What legendary blade is it this time?"

Sakura motioned to the sheathed katana. "That's what you're here to figure out."

He reached for it. Sakura pulled back. "No way. _I _hold the blade."

"At least you're cautious," the old rogue muttered. "I can't tell much from a sheath, girl, can I?"

With a growl of annoyance Sakura pulled the blade from its leather cradle and laid it flat on her palms.

Hiroshi gasped, leaning forward for a better look. His hands fluttered over the blade, just short of touching it.

"It can't be," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Has to be a replica…"

With one gnarled finger, he gently touched the blades surface. Something swirled in the dark, and Hiroshi landed on his back in the dust ten feet away with a loud cry. When he pushed himself up, his eyes searched over her arms, stopping at the swirling purple tattoo.

"You could have told me it already claimed you!" he growled cantankerously, stalking towards her.

"I don't know what it _is_!" Sakura growled back. "I don't even know if I _want _the thing!"

Hiroshi dusted himself off with a pout.

"What you have there is one of the legendary Four Swords," he informed her less then politely, making it clear he thought her a simpleton. "One of the most chased after items in rogue history. Legend goes they were crafted by the gods themselves, one for each element." He nodded at the katana. "That's Nariko, the Sword of Sky. With it come all the powers associated with the element of air."

Sakura waited, brows raised. "Which are…?" she inquired delicately.

Hiroshi gave an annoyed snort. "Wind, storms, thunder, lightning, tornadoes; I don't know. Does it look like I possess one of the Four Swords? You see a tattoo on my arm?" He thrust out a limb as thin as a stick for her inspection. "The powers make themselves known to the wielder of the blade, or so the legend goes." He eyed her katana with eyes that were hungry. "But then again, they aren't supposed to exist. If you talked to any village shinobi, they won't even know about it." He snorted. "They're more stupid then you are."

More shinobi were beginning to creep out of the shadows of the rooftops, bounding over to cluster around her. There were now roughly forty, and more were coming.

"What about what happened when you touched it?" Sakura asked, turning it almost casually so the blade caught the light. Crimson drops splattered the shinobi closest to her. There were now about sixty shinobi around her.

Hiroshi waved a hand. "A defense mechanism. Once the sword chooses a wielder, it is bound that person and does it's best to protect it. If someone touches the sword without the wielder's permission, they get a nasty surprise. Nariko was playing nice before." The old rogue eyed the blade with lust in his eyes. The number of shinobi had reached eighty. "This defense mechanism does not, however, mean the wielder can't be killed." He took a step towards her. "And as you're so new, I doubt you know how to use it well enough to protect you."

Sakura took a step back as the shinobi began to advance. "I just came to talk."

Hiroshi shrugged. "So did I, but that was before I saw what you had. The sword won't protect a dead wielder, and when you're dead it'll fetch a good price."

Sakura kept backing away, her body shifting into a tense crouch. "What about the favor you owe?"

"Ghost said to talk to you," Hiroshi replied. "He didn't say not to kill you."

Someone threw a handful of shruiken at Sakura. She deflected them with the katana and spun to run.

Shinobi streamed over the roofs, the streets, the buildings, coming from behind, beside, and in front of her. They descended onto her like hungry sharks.

Sakura fought anyone who came in near here. She didn't know how many she killed, or how many were simply wounded, but it wasn't enough. They kept coming.

A gash opened in her right leg, then one in her stomach and one on her hip. And then another on her left arm. And then more. And then more. And then more.

Sakura lobbed a kunai lit with an exploding tag into a cluster of shinobi. The explosion of fire lit the night sky, and still more climbed over the rooftops as blood and bone sprayed the sky.

Sakura fell to her knees among the press of bodies, slashed open again and again and again. There was too much blood to move, too much blood to speak. Her vision started blurring, and then went black at the edges.

A starburst lit the air by her left side. Dazed, lying on her back among wisps of darkness, Sakura watched blue and yellow flame dance across the sky above her.

_Pretty, _she murmured, sluggish.

_**Sakura. Sa-ku-RA! WAKE UP! **_Inner Sakura sounded frantic. Drowsy, confused, Sakura tried to pay attention.

Another burst of flame coated the sky, and the black wisps disappeared in the fire. Sakura parted her lips, trying to speak, but there was too much blood.

"Over here! Hurry!"

Were those footsteps? They sounded too quiet to be footsteps. What was touching her side…

The blackness on the edge of her vision shrunk inward.

"She's alive, I think! I have a heartbeat!"

"Not for long." Sakura tried to focus. "She's lost a lot of blood."

"Who's near? Anyone?"

The fire was beginning to go away. There was more darkness, the world hollowing to a point of color within a circle of black.

"Please! We have to save her!" A pause. "I'll _owe_ you!"

Another pause. "She'll owe me as well. Both of you."

"Done. Now help me!"

An odd sensation, touches along her body.

"Where to?"

"Follow me."

"Sakura. Can you hear me, Sakura? You're going to be fine."

Sakura's world narrowed further, until, finally, there was darkness, and a voice that followed her in.

"You'll be fine."

Sakura's eyes closed to a world made of blackness and blood.

**Hehe, cliffy. I know I'm evil, but the next chapter will be better. And I know it's longer then usual, but I figured because of all that waiting I'd just mesh two chapters into one. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.**


	6. The Start

**I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I really didn't mean to keep you waiting for so long, but my parents saw my progress report (which the school mails right before the holidays! Why? WHY?!?!?) and they FREAKED. They took all my computer privileges away so I couldn't even EMAIL people, let alone get time to type this up. I will in all seriousness swear to the world with my hand on the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Torah and any other religious book you can find that physics is the academic equivalent to swallowing a bottle of arsenic. But I am updating! Here is the brand new chapter.**

**I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed so far, as well as all those who've kept reading since the first chapter. Thank you so much for appreciating my writing! (And yes, bye the way, this is a blatant plead for more reviews).**

**And now, before I get sappy, the next chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

**P.S. For those who were wondering, I will tell something about why Sakura left Konoha in the next chapter. You won't get the whole story yet, of course (really, would that be fun?) but you'll get a general outline of sorts.**

* * *

_Konoha Village; Present Day:_

Someone knocked on the door to the Hokage's office. "Hokage-sama?"

No answer.

The shinobi sighed and opened the door. He didn't see anything in the room except furniture and a mountain of paperwork stacked into skyscrapers near and on the desk in the back of the room.

The paperwork vibrated. The shinobi frowned. "Hokage-sama?"

The mountain of paperwork rustled slightly.

Shikamaru lost his patience. "_Naruto!_"

The blond popped out of the grave of unfinished paperwork with a cry, scattering paper everywhere. "I'm working, I'm working!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"I can see that," he said dryly, crossing the room to collapse in one of the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk. He raised a brow at the paperwork metropolis that had built up around his friend. "Why don't you just burn it all like you did last week?"

"Shizune makes all the sheets fire resistant now," Naruto wailed, giving every last sheet of paper around him a glare that was only used to convey true, burning, utter hatred-which meant it was mostly reserved for paperwork. "I don't know how she does it; I've had everyone who works with me looking for the jutsu. That old _hag_ said paperwork was _easy._"

"Tsunade said paperwork was easy? And you believed her?" Shikamaru considered that, and then shook himself. "As sad as that is, I did come here for a reason. Genma and his team haven't returned yet, or sent a report ahead to explain the delay."

Naruto looked at him sharply; worry flaring instantly in his eyes. He quickly turned serious. "Are you sure? The latest they were supposed to return was yesterday, so I thought there was a delay and that Genma's report was just in…here…." He gave the paperwork another hate-filled glare. "Somewhere."

Shikamaru nodded. Anyone could see the worry in his deep brown eyes. The tactician was anything but lethargic when it came to Kaida. "I'm sure. I double-checked it about fifteen times. They're not here, there's no report, and no one has seen them near."

Naruto exploded up in his seat, pacing behind his desk. He chewed his lip in worry.

He wanted-_badly_-to go after Daisuke himself, but he was older now, not a child anymore, and he knew his duty was to Konoha first. So he decided.

"I'll send out a team in the morning," He stated, meeting Shikamaru's gaze with a cool one of his own. "No, Shikamaru, you are _not_ going." He raised a hand to cut off his friend's protest. "Neither are the rest of us. Speaking of which, get your wife, Kakashi, Anko, and Hinata-chan here. We have to tell them the news."

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome. Ino's going to kill me when I tell her no one in Konoha has any idea where Kaida is."

Naruto let out a hoarse chuckle. "I'm trying not to think about what Hinata's going to do to me. It'll give me peace in my final moments." He looked around. "You think Tsunade left any sake here?"

"One can only hope."

* * *

_Hidden Sword; Present:_

"_Whoa_," Kai breathed, slumping against the wall. "That has to be one of the worst birthdays _ever._"

Sakura shrugged. "Yeah, it wasn't the best. I got tons more scars from that encounter, too."

"Are you ever going to show us them?" Suke asked curiously.

Sakura looked at him calmly, but something glittered in her emerald eyes. "Probably not."

"What about the sword?' Haruna demanded. "No one ever told us that it was-was-what did Hiroshi say?"

"The Sword of Sky," Sakura told them, leaning back against the cave wall with a sigh. "The sword forged by the god of the air element. Nariko was the second sword to be created."

The three genin looked at the sheath on her back with new respect.

"Can we see it?" Suke asked.

Sakura looked at them with dark emerald eyes. Then she reached behind her, grasped the hilt, and drew Nariko of the Sky out from its plain leather sheath.

The blade was beautiful; just as Sakura had described it. There was the swirling design etched across the smooth, shimmering steel, the same as the one on the rogue's arm, the slim, graceful beauty of the blade, and there, by the hilt, were the words that Sakura had seen appear on the blade herself: _By will, and by wind._ And directly below it, her name.

"It's beautiful," Haruna breathed. She reached out to touch it.

Sakura pulled it away. "Careful," she warned. "Nariko bites."

"Didn't Hiroshi also say that it gave the wielder powers over the air element?' Kai asked.

The other three people looked at her.

"_What_?" the girl said indignantly. "Just because I talk loudly means I can't listen, too? I _do _use my ears on occasion, you know."

Sakura just chuckled. "Yeah, it's true. Each one of the Four Swords gives powers to their wielder."

"So what can you do?" Suke asked curiously. Kai looked at her with the same expression as her teammate, but Haruna gave her a glance of openmouthed shock for a moment before she composed herself.

Sakura smiled secretively, directing a wink at Haruna. "Oh, you'll find out."

Kai pouted-and then frowned.

"Wait," she said suspiciously. "You said that Nariko was the second sword to be created. Which element was the first?"

Sakura looked into the distance.

"Fire," she said softly. "Fire is always first." She looked back at the three genin. "And on that note, let's get back to the story."

* * *

"The first thing I remember after the fight with Hiroshi is…not pleasant. I don't remember where I was, or how long it had been since the fight. I just remember the pain…"

Sakura screamed and screamed and screamed. White-hot agony tore through her body and spread through her veins, every inch of her burning with the pain. She gasped and bucked, trying to stop it, but it only worsened.

"Damn, damn, _damn!_ You think you can hold her down?"

"I _would, _if it wasn't for this fucking-_shit!_"

"_Hold her down!_"

Sakura screamed as hands placed themselves on her too-sensitive skin. Every motion hurt, every touch was agony, and her scream transformed itself into a keen as she felt a foreign energy rip through her body. It felt like she was being sewn back together-inch by inch.

"Sakura? Can you hear me, Sakura? You need to calm down, girl. We're not here to hurt you…"

Sakura moaned aloud and tried to move, but the hands were holding her tightly now. Then something pricked her arm and the pain started to ebb…just a little…

Sakura whimpered slightly, and the foreign energy rushed through her system faster, stronger. Her eyes started to close even as her body kept jerking, and she fell asleep with only a shadow of the pain following into her dreams.

* * *

"Luckily, the next thing I remember is better," Sakura told the genin dryly.

"Why were you in so much pain?" Haruna asked, confused. "I thought you only got hit by blades in the fight…that wouldn't hurt as bad as what you described, right?"

"Well, first of all, I didn't just '_get hit by blades_'," Sakura quoted, shaking her head at the girl. "I got slashed open to the bone by _thousands _of blades. See the difference? And secondly, I was dying. Something about death just hurts." The rogue rolled her shoulders casually. "Now, the next thing I remember is…"

* * *

Sunlight.

Sakura groaned softly, blinking open confused emerald eyes. The first thing she saw, after the warm glow of sunlight, was _white._ She was in a white room, lying flat on a bed with white sheets.

_She did not know where she was._

Instantly, that familiar rogue panic set in and Sakura tried to sit up immediately-and she was jerked back down almost as quickly by the restraints tied around her wrists and ankles.

She was overwhelmed by the pain that ripped through her side at the sudden jerk in motion. Okay, her side, her legs, and her arms. Wherever it came from, it was too much, and Sakura collapsed against her pillows gasping for air.

A door swung open somewhere and the sound of footsteps rushing toward her had Sakura straining against her bonds, head thrashing desperately from side to side. Hands touched her and she jerked away. Something ripped in her side, and bright red blood began to seep across the white sheets.

"Stay down!" the voice was quick, warm, and female. "Let us help you, Sakura!"

"You can help me by letting me go!" Sakura growled, bucking the hands again.

The hands on her body stilled.

"She's _aware,_" the voice said, to someone else Sakura couldn't see.

"Really?' A pause, then quiet footsteps. The voice was identical to the first: female, young, and warm. "Then let's untie her and let her have a look around."

The first voice sounded skeptical. "You really think we should?"

"Where's she going to go?" the second voice reasoned. As a medic, Sakura was inclined to agree with her-her chakra may have still been depressed, but she knew her wounds were serious just from the pain. However, she was still panicking-she still didn't know where she was and that unknown person still had her hands on her stomach.

"Look," she interrupted the two unknown voices. "I promise not to go anywhere when you untie me, alright? That is, as long as you give me a good explanation as to where the hell I am, why the hell I'm restrained, and who the hell you are."

There was a moment of silence. Then the two identical voices said together: "Good enough."

The hands moved up her stomach, and Sakura caught her breath.

"Relax," soothed one of the voices, sounding oddly sympathetic about her reaction to the touch. Was she a rogue, then? "I'm just getting the restraints."

Removing the restraints took less time then the pink-haired rogue thought it would-which was good, because Sakura was getting more then a little nervous about being in an unknown room with two people she couldn't see.

There was a click as the last restraint was removed from her left wrist, and Sakura shot into a sitting position so fast she felt the rest of the stitches in her side rip out.

Someone exclaimed in irritation at this and Sakura turned her head to look at the two people who had entered the room.

Two identical girls stood by her bedside, watching her with curious, emotionless eyes. Neither moved to touch her, but they both kept shooting disapproving glances at the blood spreading across her clothes and her sheets.

The twins were both ice-pale, the shade of their skin nearly matching the walls around them. Their hair was jet black, and worn in two twisting braids that looped over the crown and left the unbraided hair flowing in an ebony wave down their back, out of their eyes, which were the strangest shade of color she had ever seen-almost gold, but with a brownness to them that drifted the color more towards honey. But though their physical appearance alone was extraordinary, their tattoos were what immediately caught Sakura's eye. Each had delicate black and purple threads inching up one entire side of their body to form a spreading spider web on the skin, tracing upward and spiraling over one side of the face. One girl had the pattern etched into the left side of her skin; the other had inked it on the right.

They both smiled at her expression.

"I'm Widow," said the girl with the spider web on the left side of her face.

"I'm Scorpio," said the girl with the design on the right. "And _you_ had better let us tend to those stitches before you lose so much blood we have to save your life all over again."

Sakura moved slightly to allow them access to her wounded side. They were both clearly rogue and clearly medic-nin, and though she tensed minutely at their touch on her skin, she relaxed her guard a little.

"You're in a facility in the mountains near Rock," Scorpio informed her, running her hands over the rogue's pale skin. "It's underground beneath a building the village shinobi think is abandoned, so there's no way any of them are going to find us here. You're safe."

"How did you find me?" she asked after a while, suppressing a wince as one of the twins began to pull out the old stitches.

"We're friends of Kichi's. She brought you here," Widow explained absently, grabbing a spool of white thread and a tiny needle.

"And now our question-you're familiar with this process, right?" Scorpio checked. Sakura nodded, understanding. When a rogue wanted information from another rogue, there was generally some sort of trade, unless the information being traded was considered something the rogue was entitled to know-normally question for question. Like the first two laws Sakura had learned from Kichi, this was something many of the rogue followed-although, it not being as important as those laws, some did not. "Alright, good. How'd you get this hurt in the first place?"

Sakura shrugged and winced as the motion pulled at her wound. Scorpio clucked her tongue faintly. "The guy I was meeting with tried to kill me. No one told me he controlled hordes of rogue," she added, grumbling.

Widow whistled, bending down with the needle in her hand. "You must have had something he really wanted."

Sakura inclined her head, not saying anything as Scorpio swiped her side with something that stung at first and then numbed the area. Widow began to redo the stitches.

The pink-haired rogue squirmed slightly at the pulling sensation. Her eyes widened as she remember something. "Where's all my stuff?" she demanded, panicking again.

"Right over there." Scorpio pointed with her free hand. On a chair just to the left of her bed sat her meager life possessions-her weapons pouch, two other small pouches, her gloves, and her sword. "We had to cut away your clothes, though. It wasn't much of a waste, if you don't mind me saying. Where…" The rogue's voice trailed off. "Where'd you get…all those scars?"

_They saw them. Ohgodsohgodsohgodstheysawthem._

Sakura fought back the wave of fright as the blood drained from her face. She forced herself to keep breathing normally.

She looked at Scorpio's face, but the rogue and her twin were intent on their task. Finally, Sakura whispered an answer to the medic's question. "Around." She turned away, unwilling to see the expression on their faces.

Since she'd been-_scarred_-her uncovered body had been seen by a total of three people. One had been a boy in a village near Grass, sneaking behind her as she bathed in a nearby river. He'd seen her naked and stumbled back screaming; turning too late to avoid one of the chakra mines she'd created and placed around her campsite. The second had been a shinobi in an alley, who'd caught her at knifepoint after a difficult assassination. He'd rammed her into the wall and slit her clothes off with the tip of a kunai. As soon as he saw her body, he'd recoiled in horror and dropped her on the ground. She'd killed him with two kunai to the neck. The last person had been another shinobi two months before her fight with Ino, who had flirted with her all day when she stopped for rest in a tiny shinobi village. He'd followed her back to her room and entered unseen behind her while she was washing her clothes (the only ones she had). When he saw her he dropped back with an unintended cry, and Sakura whirled to see a kunai with a lit exploding tag fall from his hand as he fled. She caught up with him soon and he admitted to being an assassin hired to kill her by the family of one of her targets. Right before she'd killed him, he'd stared up at her with eyes that traced the scars hidden under her clothing.

_Demon, _he'd whispered to her, before life faded from his eyes. _Monster._

And now these two, these _rogue_, had seen her. And Sakura didn't want to see the expression in their eyes.

"I'm sorry," Scorpio said gently.

Sakura's eyes snapped open. Another silence reigned in her shock. _No one's…said that to me…since…_ She drew in a breath. _They didn't call me a monster._

_**Watch it, Saku-chan, **_Inner Sakura warned her. _**You've barely known them half an hour.**_

She shook herself. Inner Sakura was right-medics or not, they were rogue, and pity always had a purpose with rogue.

"You owe me an explanation," Sakura reminded them raggedly.

"Oh, right." Widow laughed sheepishly, biting off the end of the thread. She put the needle away and joined her twin, who was getting a roll of bandages from the table near Sakura's bed. "I forgot about that. Well, it's not much a story, really…" She looked at her sister. "Why don't you tell it? Check her legs, while you're at it."

Scorpio shrugged agreeably and moved to the other side of the bed, moving the sheets off to bare Sakura's legs. The sunlight streaming from the window made interesting shapes on the tattooed side of her body. She started to unwind the bandages that wrapped around her legs.

"Well," the rogue started. "Like you said, it isn't much of a story. Kichi and another guy brought you here a while ago, and you were-well, there's really only one way to say it-fucked _up_, girl. There was blood pouring out of you from every surface we could see, and you were already unconscious. Kichi asked us to heal you and we agreed-nothing else we could do, really." Scorpio ran her hands down one of the wounds on her right leg, and Sakura felt the immediate rush of her chakra within her body. After all this time without her _own_ chakra, having some else's energy in her felt doubly strange.

"We healed you-" Scorpio continued.

"Did a damn good job, but-" Widow added, skimming her fingers down Sakura's left arm. A moment later the pink-haired ninja felt her chakra enter her system.

"-It wasn't easy," Scorpio concluded. "You were screaming and delirious through it all and you had this thing_-_" Sakura's eyes narrowed at the word. "-about touch-you _hated_ it, couldn't bear to have anyone lay a hand on you. We had someone hold you down until we got restraints, and when we could finally work in peace we realized there was poison in some of the blades that hit you-extremely painful but also extremely slow-acting, thank Kami." She eyed Sakura with something like respect. "I think people would actually consider it a medical miracle that you even survived a day, let alone at all."

"How long have I been here?' Sakura asked suspiciously.

Widow and Scorpio squirmed uncomfortably.

"About a week," they answered together.

"A _week?_" Sakura yelped. Her heart started pounding as she imagined all the things that could have happened to her when surrounded by unknown ninja for that long. "A WEEK?"

"Calm down," Scorpio said quickly, sending a pulse of soothing chakra through her body. "Nobody did anything. Kichi wouldn't let anyone touch you but us. You must be really important to her."

_Or have something she really wants. _Unbidden, Sakura's eyes slid to her sword.

"Here." Widow pushed a cup of water into her hand and then guided the hand gently to her lips. "Drink this."

"You said Kichi came here with another shinobi," Sakura stated, between short gulps of water. Her stomach muscles cramped as soon as the liquid entered her system, so she drank it slowly. "Who was that?"

"He said you knew him," Widow said with a shrug, looking over at her sister with one raised eyebrow. "He's still cute after all these years, for a guy. That's not really my type."

"Yeah," Scorpio sighed dreamily. "Why aren't there any girls with hair like his? Anyway, he's still here. We met him a few years ago. He introduced himself as Uchiha Itachi."

Sakura sprayed water all over the bed and erupted into a fit of coughs.

The twins moved quickly. One gently eased her back onto her pillows while the other placed a hand on her stomach, sending chakra down to ease the muscles. They spoke together. "What is it?"

Sakura just shook her head. "W-where," she managed to cough out. "W-where…the _hell_ is Kichi?"

The twins shrugged innocently and answered in unison once again. "I dunno. Around."

"Fucking rogue," Sakura muttered. She was beginning to get irritated by this.

The twins smiled at her.

* * *

"Well, it didn't take long before I found out where Kichi was. She came to me, as a matter of fact. Scorpio and Widow had just convinced me it was _absolutely_ necessary to do a complete physical examination-which I still would have refused if they hadn't threatened to bring out the restraints and if I could have actually moved without blinding pain-when she came into the room. Entered with her usual grace…"

The door to Sakura's room flew open and banged against the wall. "SHE'S BEEN AWAKE FOR TWO HOURS AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?"

"Kichi, startle our patient and I will make a point of practicing all the medical torture jutsu I know on you," Widow said calmly, not looking up.

"She'll do that," Scorpio added absently, also not looking up from where she was bent over Sakura's stomach. "I'll just take the simple approach and kill you."

Striding to the middle of the room, Kichi rolled her light blue eyes. "So nice to be loved. I was just going to talk to her." The eccentric ninja offered a brilliant smile to the girl in the bed. "Hey, Sakura baby."

Sakura's voice was muffled underneath a pillow, and she sounded more then a little annoyed. "Hello, Kichi. Scorpio, if your hand moves any farther south I'm going to cut it off with a pair of garden shears and feed it to you."

"See?" Widow accused, swinging around to glare at Kichi. "You see what you do? Now she's all huffy and irritated. And we were getting along so nicely, too."

"I'm pretty sure she's straight, darling," Kichi said pityingly, settling herself in a chair by Sakura's bed and straddling it.

"Not the point," Scorpio told her.

"Of course it's not," Kichi replied innocently. She winked at Sakura.

Despite the pink-haired rogue's annoyance, she had to bit back a chuckle when both twins twisted around to glare at the brunette.

"So what's the damage?" Kichi asked.

"Two of her ribs are still broken as well as the right wrist, one especially long cut across the stomach, which is _severely bruised_, some internal bleeding in the abdomen and several smaller cuts all over her body," Widow listed, straightening up from Sakura with a sigh. "That's about the extent of the major wounds. She also has bruises everywhere, and if she even tries to get up without help for around three days I will gut her with a salad fork, but other then that she should be fine. Now-"

"-That she's conscious, she'll start healing faster," Scorpio finished, rolling up the unused bandages as she too moved away from Sakura. She sat at the foot of the bed. "We'll be able to work with her more because she won't be fighting us every step of the way. If she keeps healing at this rate, she'll be up and moving in about six days, eight tops."

"I love it when you finish each other's sentences. It's just so cute," Kichi remarked. "So she's going to be alright?"

"If she follows our _exact_ instructions," Widow glared at Sakura, who lifted a pink eyebrow in response. "She'll be fine."

"Great!" Kichi leaned back against the bedside table, her legs still thrown over the back of the chair. "Can I talk to her now?"

Scorpio sighed. "Fine, but if you do anything-_any thing_-to disrupt our patient's health in _any _way-" She drew in a breath, and Widow chimed in, "We will kill both of you. Clear?"

"Crystal, darlings," Kichi purred. "Goodbye, now."

As Widow and Scorpio closed the door behind them, rolling their honeyed eyes at Kichi, Sakura breathed a light sigh of relief. Despite their cheerful natures, the twins unnerved her slightly. Both seemed more dangerous then they let on at first, much like the spiders they were named for.

"Have you known them long?" Sakura asked curiously, once the twins were out of the room.

"Try forever," Kichi laughed. "They're like my sisters, so we help each other where it's needed. We were run out of the same village. Village shinobi are too damn prone to killing first and finding out the truth later."

Sakura was inclined to agree.

"So." Kichi propped an arm on the bedside table and turned to look at her. "How are you?"

"I've been better," Sakura replied truthfully. Then she shrugged. "Then again, I've also had worst." She frowned thoughtfully. "I think."

Kichi grinned. "Good to see you haven't lost that charming sense of humor, babe."

"Good to see you kept your own," Sakura replied. "Why did you save my life?"

Kichi raised an eyebrow. "Direct little thing, aren't you? I didn't even get a thank you."

"It's Scorpio and Widow I should be thanking," Sakura pointed out. "They didn't even ask me any favors."

"Well, they wouldn't," Kichi shrugged. "You can't call a favor when you're doing a favor for another rogue. Not that I needed to ask them, but I figured I'd make it official."

Sakura stared at her. "You called in a _favor_ to save my life?" This was something _unheard _of in the rogue world. This was something that-that defied freaking _logic. _What the _hell _did Kichi want from her?

"That's not to say you don't owe anything," Kichi went on, ignoring the younger rogue. "I did have help, and Uchiha Itachi-well, he's not exactly the charitable type, is he?"

"_Kichi._" Sakura gritted her teeth in anger, and a wind began to swirl around the room. _"What do you want from me?_"

"Keep that under control!" Kichi hissed, casting a furtive glance around the room. "Calm down before the twins come back!"

Sakura glared at her. "You are _not_ getting my sword." No way in hell. No way in _hell_ was she giving that up.

Kichi rolled her eyes. "Oh, why would I want yours?" The ninja ripped a piece of black cloth off of her left forearm. Etched onto the skin was a swirling design in orange, with the kanji for "sword" right in the center edged in black. "I already have one of my own."

Sakura gaped at her. The design directly matched the one spread over her left forearm. "H-how…what…?"

Kichi reached behind her and pulled out a slim silver katana from its sheath. "This is Kosuke, the Sword of Light. I've had her for almost five years now." She tilted the blade. "Beautiful, isn't she?"

Right above the sword's grip, it read: _By chance, and by flame. _And beneath that, a name: _Mariko Kichi._

"Oh…my…" Sakura's eyes were wide as saucers, and the words stuck in her throat. She switched to something simpler. "_Kami._"

"Yeah." Kichi slid the sword back into its sheath. "So, you want me to explain now?"

"Yes please," Sakura said meekly. Her eyes were still round.

"Ok. It's like this," Kichi leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. "'Bout five years ago I was hurt-worse then you were when I found you. That's how I got these," she added, tapping the strange silver metal that traced her ears. "Anyway, I thought was about to die. I was thinking about how weak I was, how much I could have done had I been stronger. The next thing I know, there was a sword beside me."

Sakura sat up straighter in the bed. This was starting to sound familiar.

"The sword had been poppin' up for about six months before that, but every time I touched it, it exploded into weapons. This time, though, I didn't care. So I reached out and grabbed it." Kichi shrugged. "I was found eventually-but you know what happened next, babe."

Sakura nodded her head. This story was too similar to hers for her to not know what had happened. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

Kichi grumbled. "I was _planning_ to tell you everything at Frost, but I got distracted when I saw Itachi and Kisame-the three of us are old friends. By the time I came back, you were gone."

"I went to met Hiroshi, someone one of my-friends-" she stumbled over what to call Ghost- "-said had information for me," Sakura explained. "He ended up trying to kill me." She sighed and then looked at Kichi. "So. You have one of the Legendary Four Swords."

Kichi cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't tell you about that yet."

"No, Hiroshi did-that's why I went to meet him, to learn about my sword. I only got the basics," Sakura explained. She frowned. "Speaking of the bastard…"

"Don't worry about him," Kichi assured her. Her expression turned sheepish. "He's not really…around any more."

"You killed him?" Sakura could _barely believe her ears_. It was like she was back in a village. "For trying to kill _me_?" There was no rogue in the _world_ Sakura would expect to do that.

"You didn't let me finish my explanation," Kichi reminded her. "Since you already know the basics about the Four Swords, I can skip that part. That is, assuming he told you about the powers?"

Sakura nodded.

"Well, apart from being able to control light, heat, and all other things pertaining to flame…" Kichi lifted a hand, and blue and orange fire ran over her fingertips. "I can sense things. It's not like I'm physic, but I can sense who the other three swords are going to bond with. When I met you, I knew you would be the next one to get a sword. And when I met you at Frost, I could sense you had gotten one." She offered Sakura a small smile. "I even know it's the Sword of Sky-what's her name?"

"Nariko." Her voice was quiet as she voiced the name of her sword, and then Sakura thought for a moment. "All that still doesn't explain why you saved my life."

"I'm coming to that. Damn, the young are impatient," Kichi sighed and leaned her chin against the headboard of the chair. Sakura chose not to comment on that. "If one person with a Sword dies, the other three also die. The Swords are connected-so their owners are, too. If you'd have died, my sword would have disappeared and a couple of days later, I'd be gone."

"Ah." Now _that _was more of a rogue's reasoning. Everything Kichi had done made sense if she had done it to protect _herself_ rather then Sakura. Then she frowned. "How'd you kill Hiroshi? I don't remember…"

"Oh, that." Kichi rubbed the side of her head sheepishly. "The powers of a Sword are charged by the wielder's emotions. I got a little carried away."

Sakura's eyes widened. "So that's why wind always picks up when I'm upset."

Kichi chuckled. "Yeah, babe, that'd be why. You really need to learn how to control that, you know."

Sakura's eyes flashed, "Well, it's not like I knew what was _happening_ until now."

Kichi flapped a hand at her noncommittally.

Sakura scowled at her. "You know, I'm beginning to see why the twins wanted you to leave the room."

The brunette gave her a hurt look. "Now, Sakura, that wasn't very nice! Especially since you're going to be seeing a lot more of me in the future."

Sakura eyed her suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

The older rogue shrugged. "Well, so far, we're the only two with Swords. I am _not_ about to have you go get killed, so you're stuck with me until I say otherwise."

Sakura stared at her as wind began to circle around her. Was she kidding? If Kichi thought that she was going to agree to that she was crazy. Sakura didn't do orders. "Why the hell would I do that? And who the fuck said I had to listen to you?"

Kichi grinned at her. "No one. But the fact that you're still grievously injured as well as the fact that Scorpio and Widow would definitely kill you if you tried to leave right now says that you're stuck here for a while."

"And when I heal?" Sakura demanded. The wind increased.

The older rogue just drew Kosuke from her sheath and ran a finger down the bright silver of the blade. "You have a lot to learn, Sakura. I'm not just talking about your new powers. I could help you. I could train you."

Sakura looked at Kichi with expressionless emerald eyes. She studied the rogue for a long, immeasurable moment.

"I barely know you," she said slowly. Sakura wasn't so quick to trust…anymore.

"And I barely know you," Kichi replied, with a shrug. "So let's just see how it goes, yeah?"

Sakura considered her words. "Fine. I'll stay here." She said reluctantly. "As long as you train me," she was quick to add.

Kichi grinned. Sakura really hated it when she did that. "This is gonna be fun."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sakura groused.

Kichi laughed and stood up. "Get some sleep, babe. I'll see you in the morning."

Sakura watched as the rogue closed the door behind her.

_You know something?_ She said to Inner Sakura. _The fact that she didn't answer me makes me __**very**__ nervous. _

Inner Sakura groaned. _**What did you just get us into?**_

…

_**I hate you.**_

…

_I know…_

* * *

There was silence in the cave.

Still against the wall, Sakura chuckled. "Now this is a sound I'd never thought I'd hear."

"Give us a minute, will you?" Kai managed, brown eyes wide. Her long electric hair flew around her face like miniature lightning bolts. "Just let us…take it in."

The rogue raised an eyebrow. "Take what in? This isn't any different then anything I've told you before."

Haruna gave her a scathing look. "No different? You just woke up from the brink of death, introduced twin lesbian medics, and established Kichi as one of the members of the future Four. And you're saying this is completely the same as everything you've told us before? This is an integral part of the story!"

"O-kay…" Sakura was sure that when she was twelve she wasn't this confusing. "Well, while you all are 'taking it in', may I ask you something?"

Haruna gave her a look of deep suspicion. "What do you want to ask me?"

"Why you decide to dress in such a ridiculous outfit."

Slightly hurt, Haruna looked down at her brown trench coat, black turtleneck, leather skirt and mask. "I like my outfit."

"I know you do, sweetheart," Sakura said patiently. That just made it worse. "I'm sure your father-and a lot of highway robbers-do too. But I will never, never forgive myself if I allow you to leave this cave dressed like that."

Haruna turned to her teammates, the one visible deep brown eye troubled. "It's not that bad…is it?"

Kai and Suke squirmed uncomfortably.

"Ummm…" Suke said, shuffling his knees. "Well…don't take this the wrong way but..."

"You have your father's taste in fashion," Kai stated bluntly.

Haruna's eyes went wide. "Oh dear sweet gods, _no_."

Sakura gave a sympathetic wince. Kakashi had notoriously horrible taste in clothes. There was a reason the man basically stuck to one outfit.

Haruna turned to her. "What were you going to do? I don't suppose you have a spare outfit for a twelve year old in your pack, do you?"

Sakura gave Haruna a quick, appraising glance. "No…" She offered a wolfish grin. "But I'm not without resources." She pulled a kunai out of the pouch on her leg and twirled it.

Haruna eyed her. "What the _hell _are you doing?"

Sakura smiled at her. There was a reason the genin was her namesake. "Don't worry about it."

Sakura pushed herself off the wall and ran considering eyes over Haruna's clothes. "I'll work on you while I tell the next part of the story-assuming you've all had enough time to 'take it in'."

"We have," Suke confirmed. "So what happened next? Did you stay in that room for an entire week?"

Sakura laughed. "Oh, _hell_ no. I'm not spineless now and I wasn't then, which is something everyone else had yet to learn. Now, what unspoken rule about rogue have you learned?"

Kai considered the question. "Don't trust anyone?"

The older rogue nodded. "If you were a rogue and you were, say, trapped by your own weakness in an unknown facility somewhere near Rock with other rogue you've only known about a day, would you stay in your room or would you snoop around?"

Suke scoffed. "Snoop around, of course."

Sakura flashed a grin. "Yeah, that's what I thought too. So what happened next was this…"

* * *

Sakura was bored out of her mind.

It had been at least five hours since Kichi had left her, and besides one visit from Widow and Scorpio to check on her health, give her strict orders to stay in bed and at last bring her clothes-or a sheet, really; that's what the extra-long shirt she had gotten felt like-she hadn't seen a single person. Night had settled over the place like a blanket, and the utter silence was driving her up the wall.

Sakura made an abrupt decision. _Screw this, I'm going exploring._

Inner Sakura raised a mental eyebrow as the girl threw off her sheets. _**You know, three people have told you to stay in bed. Two of them are medics.**_

_And all of them are rogue, _Sakura shoot back, gently moving her legs around the bed. There was a dull ache along her side, and the rest of her body hurt, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. _All looking to enact their own plans. If they think I'm going to listen to their orders they're delusional. If I want to stand up, I'll stand-oh, sweet Kami._

Sakura grabbed the bedpost to stop from topping over. Panting, she forced herself to remain upright as the waves of pain from her midriff spread to cover her entire body. Her knees trembled, and she gripped the bedpost tighter with white fingers.

_**I told you so, **_Inner Sakura said smugly.

Sakura didn't dignify her inner half with a response, and took in several deep breaths. _Okay, Sakura, breathe. You're fine, you're fine, just breathe..._

At last, Sakura straightened from her doubled over position. She kept one hand clutching the bedpost while she placed another on her side.

Sakura could feel the stitches in her side tighten at the new position, but they held. Her ribs were aching, and her right wrist was throbbing underneath the cast Scorpio and Widow had placed it in, but she was standing. Noting all of her wounds with a medic's trained eye, she let out a groan.

_It's times like these that I really miss my chakra, _she told Inner Sakura, pulling up a fold of the ridiculous shirt to examine her legs next. The fingers of her left hand gripped the bedpost harder.

_**You want to know what I miss?**_ Inner Sakura demanded, as Sakura eyed the path from her bed to the doorway. Why did they have to make it so impossibly far away? _**My health, that's what. Can't you just get back in the damn bed and let yourself heal? Besides, do you really think they leave this place unprotected? There's probably rogue waiting right outside that door.**_

_Oh, come on, _the pink-haired ninja scoffed. _Since when have you ever taken the sensible side?_ _You're telling me you honestly want to be trapped in this room one second longer? I really do __**not**__ want to be at the mercy of these rogue, whether they saved my life or not. If I don't know anything about where I am, I'm at a disadvantage. They could kill me anytime they wanted to, you know. All I'm going to do is look around, I swear. I'm in no shape for escape attempts. If protecting myself costs me a little pain, I can handle it._

_**If we get stabbed by some rogue out there who doesn't want us wandering around, I'm placing the blame entirely on you. Grab Nariko before you leave the room, **_Inner Sakura grumbled. _**And I'm not taking the sensible side; I'm taking the one least likely to get us killed. **_

_What's a rogue's life without a little risk? _Sakura teased, before taking a breath and then letting go of the bedpost.

Her legs immediately turned to jelly underneath her weight, and her stomach felt like someone had set it on fire. She swayed, but managed to stay upright.

Inner Sakura smacked herself on the forehead. _**Oh, brilliant. Rip our stitches out while you get us killed, there's a girl.**_

_You're being very pessimistic, _Sakura told her, before taking one slow, hesitant step. She wobbled on her feet, but at least she moved.

It took her five minutes to get to the chair where her possessions lay, a total of five steps. After each, she had to stop to rest her aching ribs.

Sakura took in one more deep breath, and then measured the distance to the door. She had about four steps left to go. Luckily, they were easier-her legs had solidified somewhat underneath her somewhere between steps three and four.

Sakura reached the door and tried the handle. It swung open at once.

The ninja gave a pleased smirk before grasping the doorframe and levering herself out into the hallway. She lifted her head-and gasped.

"Uchiha Itachi?"

The famed missing-nin raised an eyebrow dark as midnight. Crimson shone in his eyes.

"Hello, Sakura."

* * *

**And that's where I'm leaving it. I know, I know, I'm mean, but at least this way you guys get to look forward to another chapter, right? *ducks as readers hurl flaming javelins at her* The new chapter will be up soon-ish…**

**REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	7. The Inbetween

**First off, I would like to give all of you a huge, sincere apology. I'm so, so sorry for not updating sooner-it was unforgivable, and actually just plain rude, especailly when I said that**

** I would be updating soon. What happened was, my parents didnt know I was posting things on the computer, and they have serious issues grasping ideas like anonymity. They **

**didnt believe me when I told them the fic was harmless, and so they banned from the computer. For an indefinate period of time. Which means for about two, three months now, I **

**have been cut off from everything electronic and pretty much everything in the world, so I could not update this at all. I couldnt even check my email. That is my-admittedly poor-**

**reason that i havent updated, and also the reason that this chapter is absolutely horrible. If it helps, i am going to try my hardest to update as much as i can-and if i cant finish the **

**story, i will let you all know that and give it away. Once again, i apologize for the wait.**

**Okay, enjoy (hopefully...)**

* * *

"_Oooh…_" Kai sat up, looking over at Sakura. "What are you waiting for? Continue, please!"

"You can't leave it like that," Haruna added. She was behind a sheet that Sakura had somehow managed to procure from within the mystic contents of her pack. She had to speak loudly over the tearing sounds that were coming from behind the barrier.

"Did I say you could talk? Stand _still, _will you?" Sakura demanded, also behind the sheet. "You're almost finished."

Itachi forgotten for a brief moment, Suke and Kai looked at each other with interest as more ripping sounds filled the air. Scrambling to their feet, they inched closer to the sheet.

"Nara Kaida and Uzumaki Daisuke, step _away_ from the sheet," Sakura called out suddenly, just as Kai's hand was about to touch it. The girl ripped her hand away and the two genin jumped back.

"We just wanted to look," Suke said defensively.

"You can look when I tell you to look," the rogue retorted, as more shredding sounds filled the cave. "I just have to do one more _tiny_ thing…aaand…there we are!"

Before any of the genin could react, Sakura had ripped down the sheet.

Suke's jaw dropped.

Kai squealed.

Sakura gave a small smile.

Haruna stood before the three of them, blushing furiously. The girl had undergone a radical transformation while underneath Sakura's sheet.

Now, the girl wore a black shirt with a turtleneck collar, with short sleeves that showed from underneath her now sleeveless trench coat, shortened until it no longer dwarfed her. The silver of her forehead protector shone around her neck, hanging just below the fold of the turtleneck, and she wore brown leather fingerless gloves that reached her elbow on either hand. Wrapped around her right upper arm was a plain silver band her teammates had never seen before. Her leather skirt had somehow become a pair of less ostentatious leather shorts, and she wore black leggings that came up to mid-thigh. White bandages wrapped around her left leg above the leggings, and she had a short knife strapped to the inside of her upper right leg on a brown leather holster. She wore the same short, sensible boots as she'd worn before, but that was the _only_ thing that had remained the same.

Sakura had managed to transform Haruna from looking like a girl who had decided to venture outside dressed in her parents clothes into looking like a _ninja_, someone who knew what they were doing and could do it well. She still looked young, without the polish of experience, but she finally looked like the ninja she was striving to become.

"Um," Haruna said, uncharacteristically timid. "Do you think you guys could stop staring now?"

Kai shook herself and then bounded over to hug the silver-haired genin. "Oh, Haruna, you look _perfect!_" This being said, Kai leveled an absolutely awestruck glance at Sakura, who was leaning against the wall surveying her handiwork with a small smile. "How the hell did you _do_ that? I can't even talk her into buying new clothes and you managed to do all _this_ just with the crap ones she had on!"

The rogue shrugged. "I have…talents." A smirk showed on her face. "Maybe it's something I'll teach to you later."

"You really think I look okay?" Haruna said uneasily, looking back and forth between the other three occupants of the cave.

Kai whirled to face her friend. "Ok? _Ok? _You're a freakin' _babe_, Haruna!"

"Or you would be, with just one finishing touch…" Sakura added, and before they knew what she was doing, the rogue had reached out and ripped the black silk mask right off of Haruna's face.

Haruna shrieked and tried to turn away, but Kai caught her shoulders and spun her back around. The hidden features met the dim light of the fire that flickered in the middle of the cave.

Her cheekbones were angular, stunningly so, and a full mouth curved under a straight nose, beneath those watchful brown eyes. But at first, before any of those things, the eye was drawn to the scar that spiraled down her jaw line, a raised line that slanted downward from her right ear to just under her chin, just darker then the girl's milk-pale skin to see.

"It happened when I was younger, about five," Haruna said quietly, into the silence that followed. "A group of shinobi surrounded me in the woods. I don't know where they were from…they were looking for my parents." She swallowed thickly. "Afterward, my father told me there was no reason to wear the mask, but I…I wanted to."

She swallowed again and made to turn. "I-I have a…extra mask-"

Her words died in her throat as, very gently, Suke reached up to touch the reddened scar. Uncertainly, she raised her eyes to meet his.

"You're beautiful," Suke said seriously. It was the first thing he'd said since the sheet had been ripped down. And she was.

There was silence in the cave. Both Suke and Kai were looking at Haruna, so all three missed the expression on Sakura's face as she watched Suke touch Haruna's face. She watched as Suke locked eyes with Haruna a moment longer, with that serious, tender emotion in his eyes, watched as Haruna put her hand up over his own, and smiled. Then the expression on Sakura's face was gone.

The silence persisted for a brief moment, and then Kai shook her head and threw up her hands in exasperation. "Never again will I listen to you when you tell me you don't want to go shopping. I mean, you _need _to learn the ways of fashion. Just look at those cheekbones, dammit! They _cannot_ go to waste."

Haruna gave a pained groan, and Suke slipped his hand from her face. "Oh, thanks, Sakura-chan. Now how am I going to get out of it when she asks me to go shopping?"

The rogue merely shrugged. Then she sat cross-legged against the wall and pulled the brown covered book over to her lap.

"I think," she remarked, a little too casually. "That it's time to check on Konoha again."

Kai nearly chocked. "What? No! Whoa, no! What about Itachi?"

Sakura shrugged. "He'll keep. It's not like the story's going to change any. Plus, we haven't actually mentioned Konoha since my fight with Ino."

"Are you mad, woman?" Kai demanded hotly. "You can't do this to a twelve year old child! Have you _never_ heard of hormones?"

Sakura coughed to hide a laugh. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. And it may be just a guess, but I'm pretty sure I know more about them then you do. Anyway, we have to check on Konoha. Believe it or not, they _are_ an important part of the story."

Kai rolled her eyes. "One I can just read about at home!"

"But one I can't." Sakura's quiet voice did not change. "You asked for my story. I'm telling it to you. This is part of it-a part I know nothing about. I am owed some answers too."

Kai sighed. She dropped down next to Sakura, pillowing her head on the rogue's legs. "Fine. Go ahead."

Sakura hid a smile. "Thank you for your permission." She opened the book and frowned. "This isn't the pig's handwriting…"

Suke peered over her shoulder. "Nope, that's my father's." He frowned at Kai. "Why is my father's handwriting in your mother's journal?"

"Mother must not have been there for this part of the story," the blonde genin mused. "She told my father that she had other people fill in the parts where she wasn't present herself. I guess she had Naruto-san write this part."

"Alright…" Sakura said slowly. "Well, as long as it's legible…" Sakura moved the book over to a more comfortable position, waited until all the children were grouped around her, and then started reading.

* * *

"I have _no_ _idea_ why I'm writing in this thing…Ino just handed me the book and demanded that I write down all my memories concerning…well, what happened. Like I want to remember that first year? Why can't she get her lazy-ass husband to do it? Ah, alright, whatever. At least this beats paperwork. For me and Kakashi, you could say it started when we got back to Konoha from our mission, what was it…about three months after Ino and all of them saw Sakura for the first time since she left. Ino was still in the hospital, which I guess is why she wanted me to write this down- and she was in pretty bad shape, too. She spent most of time sleeping, but when I first heard the story from Shikamaru I thought he'd swallowed all her painkillers. It just wasn't the type of thing the Sakura I knew would do…"

Naruto gaped open-mouthed at Shikamaru, still poised to take his first bite of ramen. "Sakura _broke Ino's legs?_ Using _taijutsu? _Are you on _crack?_"

"It happened," Shikamaru said grimly. Naruto could count on one hand how many times he'd seen the lazy jonin look this serious. "She would have beaten all of us, if Neji hadn't wounded her. All without using a drop of chakra."

Kakashi, seated on Naruto's other side, dropped his head into one hand. His knuckles were white with the tight grip he had on the counter.

"Are you sure it was taijutsu?" Genma offered, leaning across Kakashi to peer at Shikamaru. The senbon-chewing jonin had been the third member on the mission that Naruto and Kakashi had just returned from, and he was as shocked as both of them. "I mean, it's _Sakura!_ She wasn't fast enough to beat…well, anyone using taijutsu alone. No way," the shinobi shook his head. "Had to be some type of genjutsu."

Shikamaru just shook his head. "That's what I thought too, of course, but you didn't see her," he muttered, keeping his gaze down. "Neji managed to block some of her chakra points, so if she was using genjutsu it should have stopped working. But it didn't, and she was _fast._ She moved faster then anyone I'd ever seen before. Even Lee or Gai wouldn't stand a chance. She took out Kiba and Akamaru first…" he paused for a moment, lost in the memory, then finished in a whisper. "…had Ino down before any of us could do anything about it."

"B-but _why?_" Naruto exclaimed, still in shock. "I mean, yeah, she's been on the run for a while, but all you were trying to do was bring her home. You can't actually tell me Sakura _likes _being out there?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Don't you remember what she did, Naruto?"

Naruto squirmed uncomfortably. "Yeah, I remember, but that doesn't mean-"

"Naruto, the building was _pulverized._ Beyond all _repair,_" Shikamaru snapped. "She didn't just _blow it up_; she _eradicated_ it. The foundation was _liquefied,_ and _ten people_ died before ANBU showed up and tried to catch her."

"It could have been a misunderstanding-" Naruto tried to say.

"And that's just what she started with!" Shikamaru continued, getting more and more infuriated. "Then she stays on the run from all the shinobi chasing after her and becomes a missing-nin, and then blazes a fucking_ body trail_ all over the place and does who knows what else, and then the bitch _nearly…killed…Ino!_ What the fuck is she going to do next, pop into the Hokage's office and rip Tsunade to pieces herself?"

_Crack!_

Shikamaru stopped speaking abruptly as Kakashi's glass shattered underneath the jonin's fingers. He shook himself.

"I'm-I-" the tactician tried to explain, but with a sudden pop Kakashi disappeared.

Naruto stood up, his chopsticks clattering down to the counter next to his untouched bowl of ramen. His entire frame was quivering with rage.

"Naruto, I'm sorry," Shikamaru faltered. He knew the words weren't enough.

"Yeah," the orange-clad ninja said coldly, before disappearing himself. "Me too."

* * *

"Honestly, at that point I could have killed Shikamaru. The only reason I didn't was because I knew Ino was just as important to him as Sakura was to me and Kakashi. As it turns out, though, he was right. I didn't understand anything about what Sakura had become. I still don't. Anyway, I found Kakashi at Team Seven's old training grounds…"

Naruto had walked around the whole of Konoha before his own rage had subsided enough for him to think clearly. Luckily the western side of Konoha had been almost entirely empty, so no one was hurt when he'd taken out his rage and frustration by unleashing every jutsu he'd ever learned out at the surrounding wildlife. When he'd walked away, the forest had been a smoldering, collapsing mess.

Be that as it may, Naruto was still taking deep, calming breaths when he turned the corner and saw a silver-haired figure perched on the bridge on the old training ground of Team Seven. Without a word he walked over and perched beside him.

For a long moment both were silent, watching the light from the moon play on the water underneath the bridge.

Naruto took a breath to speak. Kakashi cut him off harshly. "Don't talk about her." His voice lowered. "Please."

The blond was silent for a while, playing with the railings of the bridge. He titled his head. "What should I talk about, then?"

The older ninja just shrugged, for a second looking like the sensei who had tied him to a post. "Pick something."

Naruto scratched his head, trying to think of a new topic. "Um, I had to buy new pants because Hinata-chan ripped them today?"

Kakashi couldn't help the image that popped into his mind; he really couldn't. A snort escaped him, but through some miracle he managed to restrain himself from commenting on the scene in his mind. It probably had something to do with the niggling image in his thoughts of a pink-haired girl, one that just wouldn't go away. "As interesting as that is-and believe me, it sounds _really _interesting-pick something else."

The oblivious blond just shrugged. "Ok. Konoha was attacked by Sound while we were gone."

Kakashi looked at him sharply. "Sound? They can't have attacked; they've been in chaos ever since Orochimaru died. They've been fighting for leadership among themselves. Are you sure it was them?"

Naruto nodded. "Genma told me before you came. It wasn't anything like their attacks before-just three shinobi who tried to hit the village records."

Kakashi frowned. He didn't like this. "The three could have acted on their own. Maybe they were trying to seize power in Sound themselves by stealing our jutsus. What did Genma say?"

The blond shrugged. "He doesn't know why they attacked either. But he said there was something weird about them-"

"Hatake; Uzumaki."

Both ninjas looked up to see a masked ANBU standing near the bridge. "Yeah?"

"The Hokage would like to see you."

Naruto and Kakashi looked at each other, confused. They'd already handed in their mission report.

The ANBU cleared his throat politely. "Now."

The two turned to glare at him. Then both sighed and disappeared within clouds of thick grey smoke.

The ANBU just sighed.

Naruto and Kakashi materialized right before the Hokage's desk.

"What the hell, baa-chan? We already gave in our report!" Naruto demanded, loud as ever. Kakashi prudently stepped to the side, awaiting the bone-crushing strike that would send the blond careening out the newly repaired window.

To their surprise, Tsunade just gave the two of them a tight, slightly strained smile. "Haven't I told you not to call me that, Uzumaki? Sit down and I'll brief you in a minute."

Naruto's jaw dropped open. And that's when he noticed that there were two other people in the room.

One was a dark-haired man, leaning against the far wall of the Hokage's office. Though he might have been a ninja in his youth he wore expensive, well-made civilian clothes and there were silvery streaks in his black hair. His eyes were colored like fog, a penetrating blue-gray, and he held a sheaf of papers in one hand.

The second was a young girl, sitting in a chair in front of the Hokage's desk. Her skin was pale against the black of her clothes, and she kept her head down, staring at the floor with a hood over her head. She couldn't have been more then six, but she wore the clothes of a ninja, with her weapons pouch strapped to her thigh. Then the girl looked up, straight at Naruto. Her eyes were brilliant blue.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi, this is Chikao Kana," Tsunade said formerly, gesturing towards the dark-haired man, who bowed to them politely. The jounins bowed politely back. "And this is Haruno Sachiko."

Naruto's body froze in shock. "_Haruno?_"

The ninja threw off her hood. Even with her head down, there was no mistaking the shock of bright bubblegum pink hair.

Sachiko gave Naruto a small smile and spoke in a quiet voice. "Hello, Naruto-san."

Naruto gaped at her. "Who are you? Sakura-chan's cousin or something?"

Sachiko shook her pink head. "No."

"What do you mean _no_?" Naruto demanded furiously, fists clenching. "If you're not Sakura's cousin what else are you? You're not her damn mother, that's for sure!"

"Naruto," Tsunade cut in, her hazel eyes suddenly catching the ninja's cerulean gaze. "Sachiko is Sakura's sister."

"And I," Chikao Kana interrupted smoothly, raising the sheaf of papers in his hand. "Am the man who's trying to adopt her."

Naruto's jaw hit the floor.

* * *

"Okay." Sakura shut the brown book with a snap. "That's enough of Konoha for right now."

"Whoa, whoa, hold _on_," Haruna ordered, pushing herself upright. "You have a _sister_?"

"Obviously." The rogue's voice was amused.

"What do you mean _obviously_?" Kai raved, blond hair flying everywhere as she threw up her hands. "There's nothing obvious about it! No one mentioned you had a sister in the Academy! No one mentioned it in any of the books about you and we had to read _three_ of those in school!"

"Seriously?" Sakura said with interest. Then she shook herself, and a serious light came into her emerald eyes. The three genin recognized an impending lecture. "Tell me: what _do _they teach you about me in the Academy?"

Suke shrugged thoughtfully. "I dunno; mostly just stuff about how dangerous you are, how violent, how unpredictable…"

"How if we ever meet you in a fight we should just try to run away as fast as possible…" Kai added, a similar vacant expression on her face.

"And then there was some stuff about your signature jutsus," Haruna finished. "And that your chakra element is wind, but that's basically it."

"I see..." Sakura considered this, one hand propped up on her leg. Then she shook her head and sighed. "Kami, that place is useless. Let me ask you something, then. Say that the person you've just described isn't me. Would you feel confident fighting him?"

The three genin blinked. Silence reigned in the cave for a time. Finally, Suke said, confused, "The ninja _isn't _you?"

Sakura nodded. "You're going up against _any_ ninja. Let's say you've come across a shinobi in the woods, and he's trying to get through to Konoha. You've heard of him, so you know his chakra element is wind and you know some of his signature jutsus. You also know that he can be extremely violent and dangerous. Would you feel confident facing him?"

"Of course!" Suke said indignantly. "I mean, you pretty much know what he's going to do, right? So what's there to be nervous about?"

"Well, you really _don't _know everything he's going to do," Haruna corrected thoughtfully, frowning. "I mean, what if he decides not to do his signature jutsus? Or if they aren't useful at that time? Then you'd have _no_ idea what he's going to do, and he could come out with anything."

"That's not true. You know he's wind-based, so you'd have to assume that his normal jutsus are based off of wind," Kai argued. "You'd just have to use attacks that countered wind attacks."

"Yeah, but just because he's wind-based doesn't mean _all _his jutsus are wind jutsus," Suke pointed out. "And what if he has a bloodline limit or he's a weapons master like Tenten? You wouldn't be prepared for attacks like that."

"Plus he's supposed to be violent and unpredictable," Haruna concluded. She frowned, trying to organize her jumbled thoughts.

Sakura leaned back against the wall, watching them with a small, proud smile. "So, we have a verdict?"

Kai's expression matched Haruna's. "I guess I…_wouldn't _be confident facing him."

"Me, either," Haruna admitted reluctantly. Suke gave a nod of agreement, a strange serious light in his blue eyes.

Sakura nodded. "Among rogue we have a saying: _Know thine enemy_. It may be cliché, but it's true. As you guys have just demonstrated, you may _think_ you know a lot about someone, when, really, you don't know anything at all. And when fighting, that's always a problem."

"But-you're never going to know _everything_ about the shinobi you're fighting," Kai protested, confused. "That's impossible."

"True," Sakura agreed, to their surprise. "That's why as a ninja, you have to find ways to get around your lack of knowledge. One of the key things that a shinobi learns is _never make assumptions._ If your opponent is wind-based, don't assume all his jutsus are wind. If your opponent is a weapons master, don't assume he doesn't know genjutsu. Keep what you already know in mind, but take the fight as it comes, not as how you assume it's going to go."

She swept an emerald gaze over them. "I want you to think about that during the next part of the story, alright?"

The three genin nodded.

"Alright." Sakura settled back into her wall. "Where did I leave off…?" The rogue grinned at Kai's expression. "Oh yeah…"

* * *

Sakura gaped at the man in front of her.

"H-wh-bu-What are you doing here?" she sputtered, gripping the doorframe for support.

Itachi regarded her with the same expressionless face he had in Frost. His eyes were Sharingan red, but this time he did not attempt to catch her gaze. He simply looked at her and raised the book in his hand.

"You're reading?" Sakura said in disbelief. Itachi nodded, and the pink-haired girl's eyes narrowed. "Outside my door?"

Itachi just leaned against the wall outside of the door and tilted his head in admission. He was wearing simple clothes similar to those he'd worn in Frost, just a pair of black pants and a black t-shirt. His feet were bare, and his silky ebony hair was tied in a neat ponytail.

Sakura's eyes narrowed even further. "Are you-are you on _guard duty?_"

"We _are_ all rogue," Itachi calmly pointed out, in his deep, cultured voice. "You did not really expect us to leave your door untended, did you, Sakura?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed even further, trying to ignore the way he purred her name. "No," she said icily, lying through her teeth. "Of course I expected a guard. I just didn't expect it to be-well, _you._"

_**You **__**idiot**_, Inner Sakura growled, puffing up with anger until she was three times her size. _**You didn't think there'd be a door guard?**_

_Well, neither did you, _Sakura retorted snippily. _I'm supposed to be too injured to walk, remember?_

Itachi cocked an eyebrow, and Sakura had a momentary surge of panic. With that expression on his face she was _sure_ he'd just read her mind. A sly note crept into his voice. "Perhaps I should find Widow or Scorpio. They were both very…adamant on the fact that you should not be allowed to walk out of bed unaided."

Sakura's face went pale. "You bastard! You wouldn't!"

The trademark Uchiha smirk appeared on his features. His crimson eyes traveled slowly down her form.

"They _were_ right," he remarked, with annoying apathy. "You cannot even stand without support. It would have been more prudent to wait a day or so before leaving your room to spy, Sakura."

Sakura glared at him, emerald eyes shooting sparks. At that moment she forgot who exactly it was she was arguing with. "I can too stand without support! Look!" She let go of the doorframe and tottered uneasily on her trembling legs before grabbing the door again to avoid toppling over. Face flushed with embarrassment, she added, "And I wasn't spying on anyone! I was going out of my room to get-" she paused and, luckily, her stomach rumbled. "-food!"

The smirk grew. "Really?"

"Yes!" Sakura hissed, too annoyed to notice that her hair was ruffling in an indoor breeze. "And I don't appreciate you telling me what I can and can't do, Uchiha! Now if you'd just move out of my damn way, I'd get some food and go back to my damn room!"

Itachi raised an eyebrow and moved over to the side to give her a clear path. Sakura gave him a deeply suspicious glance, but moved out into the hallway using the wall for support.

When she was a few steps away from him, Itachi called out, "Do you know where the kitchen is, Sakura?"

Sakura stopped dead. A deep, angry scowl spread across her features.

"Well?"

Oh, if he had just _seen_ her face right then. Sakura's glare could have made the Devil get down on his knees and beg for mercy. Spitting the answer out through her teeth, the pink-haired rogue growled, "No."

"I see." Sakura's teeth ground together at the light amusement in that quiet voice. "So you are just going to wander the building until you find it?"

The girl whirled around, wind whipping her hair in her face. It had gotten longer since she'd hacked it off. "You have a better idea, Uchiha? I'm all ears!"

The older rogue pushed himself off the wall and strode towards her, stopping a few steps away. "Why don't you go back to your room, and I will get you something to eat?"

Sakura gaped at him in shock and the wind swirling around her died. "Why the hell would you do that?"

Itachi just looked at her, and the crimson eyes glittered. "I have some things I need to discuss with you, Sakura. I am owed a favor for saving your life, remember? I will not be able to talk with you if you are on the verge of fainting-which you most likely would if you continued to walk the building, given your current state."

The pink-haired girl mumbled something inaudible.

"Go back to your room," he ordered, suddenly serious. "I will return shortly."

He turned with the grace of a cat, and within three seconds he was gone from her sight.

Sakura blinked after him.

_Well, _she said to Inner Sakura. _That was weird._

_**Very, **_Inner Sakura agreed._** I don't trust him.**_

_He doesn't trust us either, _Sakura pointed out, brushing her mussed hair back from her face with her free hand. _Which is probably one of his motives for getting us food. What do you think he's going to get us to do with his favor?_

_**Well, he's not going to waste it on something stupid like sex or something humiliating, **_Inner Sakura mused thoughtfully. _**Maybe he'll ask to look inside our head? Since he knows he can't use Sharingan on us?**_

_It's a possibility, _Sakura contemplated, struck by the idea. _I just don't know why he would be interested in me enough to care what was going on inside my head…let's get back to the room. I think my legs are about to collapse._

_**I told you-**_

_Don't say it._

_**-so. Hey, what's in there?**_

_Huh?_ Sakura turned her head to look at what Inner Sakura had mentioned. On the opposite side of the hallway there was a room, the door left slightly ajar. Through the crack the rogue could see the outline of a table and dark, neatly stacked shelves of books.

"Now, here's the question…" Sakura murmured, tilting her head absently. "How to get from _this_ side of the hallway to _that_ side…"

Inner Sakura eyed the wide hallway with distaste, her smugness at being right gone. _**We could run really, **__**really**__** fast.**_

"I can't _believe_ that's the best idea we came up with," Sakura murmured. With a grunt of pain, she tied her sword around her waist and switched her position until both her hands were plastered against the wall and rocked back on her heels.

Using the speed she had built up during the months without her chakra, Sakura shot from the wall into the room in less then a second. Once inside, however, she collapsed to the floor in a pain-filled ball.

"So should not have done that, so should not have done that, so should not have done that…" Sakura moaned, holding her side. "Worst plan _ever_, dammit, dammit, dammit…"

The pain subsided, and Sakura gingerly sat up, gripping the table nearby.

The room was a library, filled with shelves and shelves of books. Dark wooden shelves lined the walls beneath a vaulted stone ceiling, one that was broken up by diamond-shaped windows made of stained blue glass. Where she stood there was a long wooden table, with a pile of books and papers in one corner and a built-in marble chess board in the middle, complete with white and black marble chess pieces. The table was surrounded by more bookshelves. All in all, the room was beautiful, and a _lot_ bigger then she had expected it to be from outside.

Carefully, Sakura walked to the middle of the table, where the chess board stood. She picked up the black queen, turning her over in a slender white hand. Quickly, before she could stop it, a memory flickered across her mind.

_A chess board. Things are simple in chess, black and white with no gray. Things should be simple in real life._

_I pick up the black queen. The most powerful piece on the board, __**he**__ said. Then why does she follow a weak little king?_

_"Hey! You! What are you doing in here?"_

_The black queen slips from my hand, tumbling, spiraling through the air. "N-nothing! Nothing!"_

_"You lying little brat! Oh, it doesn't matter. Come on, it's time for you to see him. He has something special for you, girl."_

_The black queen hits the floor and shatters. Only her face remains._

_"No, I don't want to! I said I didn't want to anymore!"_

_There's a hand on my arm. I try to struggle, try to get away. I look down and see the face of the black queen, glittering on the white floor._

_Something hits my face, my neck. My eyes close._

_It'll happen. It's happening again._

**"NO!"**

"Why are you in here, Sakura?"

Sakura gasped and opened her eyes. The chess piece in her hand slipped out of her numb fingers towards the floor.

In an instant, it rested in a slender-fingered, callused palm. Stupefied, the rogue raised her emerald eyes and looked straight at Uchiha Itachi.

"What the hell, Uchiha?" Sakura sputtered, grabbing the table for support as she placed a hand over her heart, which was pounding uncontrollably, as much from the fright as from the memory. She hadn't remembered something from _there_ in years. "You _trying_ to scare me to death?"

Itachi was standing close to her, the chess piece in one hand and a steaming bowl in the other. As always, the rogue regarded her with seriousness. "I was not aware asking a simple question could be termed as frightening," he replied. His eyes swept over the table. "Were you looking for something?"

Sakura looked around. There were books on the floor, some pulled halfway out of the shelves, and the papers that had been on the edge of the table were now strewn about the room. Some were still fluttering to the floor.

"Oh. Urm…no," Sakura said smartly, frantically trying to come up with a good lie with Inner Sakura's help. "It's just-this thing-"

"Ah, the Sword of Sky," Itachi commented serenely. He placed the queen back where she belonged. "I assume that is where the wind comes from."

Sakura stared at him incredulously. "You _know_ about that? How do _you_ know about that?"

Itachi reached an arm around her to place the bowl he held in front of her, then moved smoothly to the other side of the table. Taking a seat on the opposite end of the chess board, he explained simply, "I came across Kichi when she first acquired her sword. We found out what it was together. I was with her as she first began to explore Kosuke's powers. As for how I know you in particular are in possession of a Sword, Kichi explained as we were bringing you here for healing. I believe she has told you some of how she came by her Sword, yes?"

Sakura lowered herself into the seat opposite his, still in shock. "She-she said you guys were old friends," she admitted. "I didn't know that you knew about her Sword."

Itachi chuckled slightly. "I would not mention this to Kichi, but it would have been quite impossible for her to keep it a secret from me. She burst into flames when provoked for the entire first year I traveled with her." His lips tilted up slightly. "She has quite the vocabulary as well."

Sakura laughed out loud, much to her surprise. She couldn't help it; the image of an angry Kichi shrouded in flames cussing out the Uchiha was just too funny. "She really burst into flames?"

The ebony-haired rogue nodded. "It is much the same as you and the wind. Scorpio and Widow can attest to it as well. It is very difficult to treat someone for injuries when they throw fireballs at you."

Sakura chuckled again. "Yeah, I'll bet." She looked down, and then asked in a completely different voice, "How long…did it take for her to learn how to control the powers that came with the Sword?"

Itachi titled his head. "Just that one year. But then again, she did not have anyone to train her. I understand she's offered her services to you." A smirk played around his lips. "That should be…interesting, Sakura."

"Oh, shut up," Sakura grumbled. Itachi just chuckled.

It was odd, this easy conversation she was having with him. For so long he'd been her enemy, the man Konoha had proclaimed as an emotionless murderer, an empty shell killing for power. But now…he didn't seem as cold-blooded or deranged as he was rumored to be. Sakura had seen killers before, killers of innocents, and they all had a distinctive look about them, one that made them look-hollow, like a living shell. Itachi looked _alive._ Of course, his features were still carefully blank, and he kept himself guarded, his chair twisted to watch the whole of the room. But Sakura hadn't dropped her guard either, and beneath the table she still kept a tight grip around her Sword. She had to admit, despite her mistrust, that she was curious. He was so different then what she'd been expecting. He wasn't warm by any stretch of the means, but there was a light in his eyes she hadn't been expecting. That curiosity threw her caution to the winds, and she spoke quickly.

"What would you say if I asked you about your past?" she blurted out suddenly.

To her immense relief, Itachi just raised an eyebrow. "Most likely the same thing you would say if I asked about yours."

"Go find a pair of balls and fuck yourself?"

Itachi's lips twitched. "Something to that effect, yes. Your food is getting cold."

"Oh!" Eyes wide, Sakura glanced down at the bowl that had been placed in front of her. When she saw what it was, she snorted. Men, apparently, didn't know how to cook anything _other_ then ramen noodles. "Thank you."

Momentarily forgetting the Uchiha, Sakura reached down into the pouch that hung on the same belt as her sword and pulled out a vial filled with yellow powder. Unscrewing the top, she shook out a small bit of the powder into her palm and then threw it onto the bowl.

Itachi watched with interest as the powder sunk into the food, rapidly disappearing.

_Is he staring at me?_ Sakura shivered with the feeling of eyes on her and looked up at Itachi, who was indeed staring. "It's a powder I invented when I first became a rogue," she told him, shrugging. "Actually, I invented it right after I lost my chakra, when someone tried to kill me with arsenic. Luckily he underestimated the dosage, so I was just in extreme pain for a while-but that's getting off topic. It's a poison nullifier-it doesn't just detect poison, it cancels it out. I test all my food with it now."

At this, Itachi lifted an eyebrow. Sakura was beginning to recognize that as a signature gesture of his. "Quite an interesting invention. How do you account for varying strengths of poisons?"

Sakura shrugged again. "It nullifies poisons that are up to the strength of the poisons Sasori used to use, and those are the strongest poisons I've found so far. But if the powder reacts with a poison stronger then it can nullify, my food turns green in around five seconds." She glanced down at her ramen bowl, which was steaming slightly and decidedly not green. "So, either you didn't attempt to poison me or the poison you used just wasn't strong enough." This time she raised a brow. "Care to tell me which it was?"

Itachi just smirked at her.

Sakura sighed and started to eat. A cold smile lit her face as she remembered why exactly she had created this poison nullifier, which she had actually done long before she was ever a rogue. Still thinking along these lines, Sakura's eyes slid to the chess board.

Itachi noticed her preoccupation. "Do you play?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. My…_uncle_ taught me how." She looked back at him steadily. "Why? You up for a game?"

Itachi shrugged indifferently. With his eyes still on hers, he reached out a hand and moved a white pawn two spaces ahead. He gave her a levelheaded stare. "It is your move, Sakura."

Sakura just nodded and leaned forward to examine the chess board. After a few seconds she moved a black pawn of her own. Itachi retaliated, and the game was on.

They played in silence for a while, each focused on the game. Sakura's intelligence hadn't dulled with her year as a rogue, and she had always been naturally good at chess. Sakura moved her pieces almost immediately after Itachi moved his, and neither spoke. The only sounds they made were quiet hisses of annoyance or surprise, or absentminded clicks of the tongue.

Itachi moved his knight in a long L across the board, taking one of her remaining pawns.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," she remarked, as she used her queen to take Itachi's knight. "What are you planning to have me do with the favor I owe you?"

Itachi tilted his head. "Are you worried, Sakura?"

Sakura ground her teeth together. "No one said I was worried, Uchiha. I would just prefer to have some warning."

The Uchiha did not turn his eyes away from the board. "Warnings do not come often. Surely you must have learned that even in your village, Sakura. After all, Konoha did not have warning when it was attacked by Sound merely three weeks ago."

"Sound?" Sakura frowned. "_Sound_? No, it couldn't have been them. Orochimaru's dead; they've got nobody to lead them. Are you positive it was them?"

"Kisame and I encountered them on our way to Rock. Whatever mission they were on became a failure soon after, but I suspect it would have been a failure whether or not the shinobi lived to tell of it. There were only three of them, and they had nothing of Konoha's with them. And as for Orochimaru's death, you should not put so much faith in my foolish otouto. I am supposed to be dead as well, remember."

"True." Sakura's eyebrows were drawn together in a heavy line. "But still, that doesn't make sense. Why wait until now to attack and send three men? It's weird."

"Hmm." Itachi tutted as he took her remaining bishop. "It is Konoha's issue, not yours. As for your favor, perhaps I plan to ask you about your past. It is, after all, a curiosity."

The girl gave a dry laugh, sweeping aside his castle with her knight. She ate her last bite of ramen. "Oh, come on. I know the rule. You can't ask a rogue to reveal their past because they owe you, even if it is a debt like mine. Pick something you're actually going to get, Uchiha."

Itachi looked up, and before Sakura could look away he caught her eyes with his. The three tomae spun dangerously, but Sakura was not caught up in an illusion from the Sharingan, merely the seductive beauty of his eyes.

With deliberate slowness, his eyes trailed down her form, from the white hand that clutched the chess piece to the smooth arm it was attached to, down the line of her shoulder and past the curves of her body hidden by the loose white shirt, over the slender and well-muscled legs, bare under the clothes.

"And what," he said softly, slowly moving his eyes to her face. "Would I get from you, Sakura?"

_**DAMN. IT.**_ Sakura cursed as her face, no, her entire body, turned brilliantly red.

"Not that," she snapped, wind rushing around her form. "Stop with that trick, too. If you want information ask for it, don't try to trick me into bed with you to get it. It won't work."

Itachi's full lips curved into a smirk. "I said nothing of sex, Sakura." His eyes burned into hers. "_You_ were the one who brought up the subject."

Sakura _glared_ at him. She moved her queen over diagonally so that it faced his king. "Check," she spat.

Itachi moved his king calmly, a spark of amusement in his eyes. Angrily, Sakura followed with her queen, and this enabled the Uchiha to move his bishop into line of her king.

"Checkmate," he said simply.

Sakura flicked her king over with an audible thud. "Congratulations," she grumbled. "You better not expect anything from this."

Itachi just looked at her. "I do not expect anything." He watched her as she left the room. "Good night, Sakura."

"Night, Uchiha."

As Sakura headed back to her room, slowly, she heard the low, smooth sound of a chuckle.

She ground her teeth together. "Stupid Uchiha _man._"

"Sakura."

Itachi was suddenly in front of her and Sakura squeaked in surprise and nearly fell. Itachi reached out a hand to steady her faster then she could see, grabbing her by the arm, and the resulting motion brought her closer to his body then she would have liked.

"What do you want?" she demanded, to hide the sudden heat in her cheeks.

"Call me Itachi," he said simply.

Sakura ground her teeth together. "That's _it_?"

He just stared.

The rogue let out an irritated scream and said, angrily, "_Fine._ Good night, _Itachi._"

Then she jerked her arm away and made her slow, torturous way back to her room.

When she looked back at him one last time, the rogue was gone.

* * *

"That was the first night I played chess with Uchiha Itachi, but it wasn't the last. It was also the first time I had heard of Sound's new movements, and I wish I could say it was the last time. We wound up playing nightly games at the building-I found out from him it was called Safeheal by the rogue, a place Widow and Scorpio had built and ran themselves. It was where a lot of rogue went to be healed. Each game was more informative and more annoying then the last. We talked during them, about random things-alright, fine, we didn't talk, we fought. Alot. Over everything. But still, it was fun to play, in way, despite the fact that if I could have, I would have murdered him thirty-six times over-neither of us dominated the game-sometimes he won, sometimes I did. The only thing that stayed the same was that I was always the one who stormed out of the room first. I stayed there for another week, recuperating. Kichi came to visit me every day, and we talked about the Swords and about other things-like when we were leaving, and Itachi. She said we would leave as soon as I got my chakra back, but Itachi was a bit of a harder topic. I finally figured out why he asked me to sleep with him-the short of it was, the man was a manipulative little bastard. Everything he did had an angle, even if no one understood what it was. Asking me to sleep with him was a way to unbalance me, or that's how Kichi put it-a way to get me to lose my temper so I revealed more then I would have liked. That was another thing with Itachi, something that made him such a deadly shinobi-he always knew exactly the way to attack someone in order to get the result he wanted, which meant he _always _won. Oddly enough, that was what made playing chess with him fun. The last game I played with him was the night before I left, just before my chakra returned. I guess you could say it wasn't my best experience, really…"

"Check."

Sakura moved her king.

Itachi moved his bishop over, head tilted.

"Check."

Sakura grumbled at the chess board and moved her king again. "Missing-nins, rogue, whatever you call them, you're all the same," she muttered, irritated. "Bitchy, whiny, irritating, self-absorbed, cowardly, egotistical jackasses…"

"That's not strictly accurate," Itachi commented, tilting his head to the side. "Missing-nins are far more cowardly then rogue."

Sakura blinked at him, a noodle poised in front of her mouth. Over the past seven days she'd found that, yes, it _was_ the only thing he could cook. It was also the only thing Kichi, Scorpio, or Widow could cook, which the girl found just slightly sad. "They're the same thing."

"Ah." Itachi leaned back in his chair. "Kichi has not explained this to you."

Sakura scowled at him. "Kind of obvious that she hasn't, isn't it? Tell me what you mean. I thought rogue was just another name for missing-nin."

"They are not." Itachi steeped his hands beneath his chin and considered the chess board thoughtfully. "A rogue is a shinobi like you or I, who has left or been cast out of their home village and so roams the world without allying himself with another village." He moved his castle into the path of Sakura's queen, posed to take it. "A missing-nin, however, is someone who has left their home village and then gives their allegiance to another village-like my foolish little brother, or Orochimaru, for instance."

Sakura frowned at the thought of Sound, and absently moved her queen away from Itachi's advancing castle. There had been news of two more Sound attacks, one on Lightning and another on Rock, the village near Safeheal. After their period of long inaction, the attacks made her uneasy-and they made other rogue uneasy too. The last time Sound had focused mostly on Konoha, but this time they seemed to be hitting any village they could-and the last two attacks had hit places under control of rogue, not local shinobi.

After a minute, Itachi's words penetrated her wandering thoughts and she raised her head to look at him. "So, if rogue and missing-nin are different things, how do you tell them apart? And how come villages don't know the difference?"

The rogue just cocked his head, a strand of silky ebony hair falling across his face. "Villages see what they wish to see. Missing-nin wear scratched forehead protectors, and around village shinobi, and missing-nin, so do rogue. Also, since missing-nin do not know of rogue themselves, village shinobi cannot learn of us. As for knowing the difference, it is something that becomes apparent. Rogue have something of a hardness about them, a strength that missing-nin lack. Missing-nin go straight from one village to another, always dependent on something other then themselves-rogue roam the world, and they have nothing but themselves." Itachi shrugged. "The difference between night and twilight, I suppose, would be a fitting example."

He raised an eyebrow at Sakura's expression. "Yes?"

She shook her head. "Nothing." She cleared her throat noisily. "It's…um…your move." She watched as he studied the board, slender fingers hovering idly above his white pieces.

After a minute, her voice returned and she recovered enough to be skeptical. "That seems a bit weird, no offense. I don't understand why there had to be a distinction."

Itachi placidly moved his white king away from the threatening advance of Sakura's dark queen. "The distinction is only in the eyes of rogue-neither missing-nin nor villages know that there are those outside who consider themselves neither. It is a difference more of mindset then of make, as it were. And as I have said, rogue are far more cautious then other shinobi. I believe this distinction was created primarily for rogue self-protection."

Sakura made a face of disgust at his clever move and raised an eyebrow. She would have never admitted it to his face, but he had fascinated her. "How so?"

Itachi raised a brow of his own, a signature gesture of the seemingly blank-faced ninja. "Think on it, Sakura. As I recall, you were said to be intelligent." Over the pink-haired girl's sputter of outrage, he continued. "What if, if there was no distinction between rogue and missing-nin, a missing-nin has the chance to work with one who is not allied with a village? And after that, what if this shinobi goes to another village and tells of the free-roaming shinobi he has seen, all over the world and in places the villages did not even know were there. It is rather obvious, Sakura, that the villages would not take kindly to the fact that there are so many free roaming around what they consider to be an organized world. They need never know that those they believe to be scattered are organized, that we possess artifacts such as your Sword, or places such as Safeheal. It is our very anonymity that allows us to survive. If we could be revealed by those missing-nin connected with villages, then we must sever ties with them as well." Itachi inclined his head. "It may be a false distinction, but that does not mean it is not an important one. Checkmate."

Sakura slammed her hands on the table, so hard the impact jolted up her bones and stormed out of the room.

* * *

"I was fine for the rest of the day, if you can call royally pissed off fine. I hated the fact that Itachi had used my lack of knowledge to distract me in order to win the game, and I hated more the fact that it worked. Kichi didn't help things when she suggested that my rage was coming from the repressed _tension_ between me and the Uchiha, which, naturally, made me so furious I blew her through a wall-something that was actually becoming pretty common for me. I was still a long way off from controlling my new abilities. Anyway, we're getting off topic. At the end of the day I was in my room. I went to bed, not expected what would happen in the morning. The day I left Safeheal, I woke up in the sky, screaming…"

* * *

**I know, I know, I'm aware it's horrible. Once again, I am SO, SO sorry. The next chapter will take a little while to come out. Would it be foolish to ask for reviews? I'm not above groveling, you know. Pretty pretty please?**

* * *


	8. The Journey Begins

**I have passed BOTH my math and my physics classes, which MEANS that, for one, I don't have to go to summer school (WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!) **

**I love all of you. Thank you so much for reviewing! Honestly, I think reviews are better then chocolate. (Well, close). Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Konoha Village, Present Day:_

"Naruto, open this damn door!" Ino bellowed, slamming the door with an open palm. The walls of the Hokage Tower shuddered. "You tell me where my child is this _instant_, you orange-suited bastard!"

"Ino, just calm down-" Shikamaru tried to reassure her. He backed up as his wife turned on him, blue eyes flashing in rage.

"Calm down? _Calm down_? Our twelve year old daughter is missing, along with her _entire_ genin team _and_ their instructor, and you want me to calm _down_?" Ino roared. Honestly, the woman would frighten dragons.

"Ugh…" Shikamaru groaned. "You are so _troublesome_, woman…"

"Oh, _I'm _troublesome? Let me tell you a few things, you _troublesome _b_-_"

"I _knew_ it was a bad idea to have Genma as an instructor," Kakashi commented smoothly, interrupting the raging Ino. Shikamaru threw the silver-haired jounin a grateful look. "Why did we all agree to that, again?"

"Tsunade picked the pairings out of a hat as her last act as Hokage and then got us all drunk when she had to tell us the news," Anko reminded her husband, resting a pale hand on his shoulder. "Remember? Afterwards you stopped by the store and got that fabulous-"

Hinata squeaked and covered her ears.

Kakashi grinned. "Oh, yes. No wonder I was in a good mood."

"_Na-ru-TO!_" Ino roared, past her patience, thumping on the door again. "You get out here right this fucking _minute!_"

"Alright, alright!" A harried Naruto swung open the door, glaring at Ino with bloodshot eyes. "Excuse me for having to go to the bathroom…come on in."

He stepped back and let them file inside, giving a hello kiss to Hinata. He grasped her hand and kept her by his side as he sat back down at his desk.

Then he sighed, looking up at his oldest friends. "We don't have word yet."

All five visibly slumped. Kakashi's hand tightened into a fist.

"That's not the worst of it." Naruto clenched his teeth, clearly holding himself in check. "In the last mission report, Genma said he was half an hour from the Hidden Lightning Village. If he decided to continue that way to go back home…"

Ino cursed. Shikamaru finished "-it would put them right through the Hidden Sword Village."

"None of us can go look for them," Naruto started. He raised his voice, cutting off the protests. "Guys, you all know it's true. But I sent the best team I could…Neji's going, and Shizune," he added.

Anko's shoulders tightened. Kakashi put a hand on her arm. "So what can we do?"

Naruto looked up at his wife. "We wait."

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present:_

"Whoa, wait a minute," Kai pushed herself up on her forearms. "How does someone wake up in the _sky?_"

Sakura grinned. "Well, _you_ don't. But for someone like me, it's not too uncommon." She frowned thoughtfully. "Still weird as _hell_, though."

"I can imagine," Haruna commented dryly. Sakura playfully stuck her tongue out.

"So what happened-" Suke's words were cut off by a gigantic yawn. "-next?" he finished sheepishly, a red flush staining his cheeks.

Sakura just raised her brows. "Tired, kid?"

Suke scoffed, puffing himself up proudly. "No! I'm a ninja, and ninjas don't get-" a yawn larger then the last one ripped out of his throat, and the genin's face turned brilliantly red. "-tired."

"Uh-huh," the rogue drawled, clearly not believing this. She stood with a groan, stretching out the stiffness of her muscles. "Get some sleep, guys. There's more then enough time for the rest of the story in the morning." She glanced outside at the still raging storm. "At any rate, we're still stuck here."

"Aw, Sa-ku-r_aaa_…"

Sakura just chuckled. "Come on, guys, bed. I'll see you in the morning."

Grumbling, and shooting evil looks at the pink-haired rogue (which she ignored), the trio lay down on the cave floor and went to bed.

When she could hear the deep, even breathing of all three genin, Sakura took one last look around and slipped quietly out of the cave.

"Sakura?"

Haruna sat up sleepily, blinking to get rid of the fuzziness in her head. Gathering her blanket around her, she pushed herself upright and looked around the cave.

Her eyes landed on Suke first, still firmly entrenched in his blanket, snoring softly. Her lips twisted into a wry smile, and then she continued to scan the cave for the rogue.

"I don't think she's here."

Haruna jumped and whirled around, pulling out a kunai. She relaxed, letting the kunai fall to her side. "Kami, you scared me half to death! When did you wake up?"

Kai stood there, wrapped in her own blanket, electric hair still wild from sleep. "A little after you did," she answered softly, taking a careful look at Suke to make sure she hadn't woken him. "And I don't see Sakura-chan anywhere." Her soft brown eyes were worried as they stared back at Haruna. "Do you think she left us here?"

Panic seized the girl before logic set in, and she shook her head after a moment's hesitation.

"No. No way. Sakura-chan wouldn't do that to us." An idea blossomed in the genin's mind, sparked by the memories of another night, not so long ago. "Come on. I know where she is."

"What? Where?"

"Shh!" Haruna whispered hotly, glancing at Suke. "Quiet! Here, just follow me." Grabbing Kai's hand, she started towards the entrance to the cave.

"What are you _doing_?" the blond hissed, as Haruna tugged her onto the threshold of the opening, right before the still raging storm. "We're going to get killed!"

"I told you to shush!" the brunette snapped at her. _Blondes._ Then she looked up. "Ah, see? I knew it."

Kai followed Haruna's gaze. Leaning against the outside of the mountain, just to the left of the entrance, was Sakura. One foot was braced against the mountain wall, arms folded loosely over her chest, muscles bulging beneath the tattoos. She was speaking softly, seemingly into the wind that seemed to blow past her.

"…still here?" Sakura asked quietly, head resting against the rock wall. She listened for a minute, then gave a brief smile. "Good, I didn't think he left…No, no, I'll take care of it soon…yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry about it…You have a lock on his last location? Right by the tree square…uh-huh. Uh-huh, no, really, I'll take care of it. If you want to handle that other thing, though…" She cocked her head as the wind blew harder. "Alright…alright, great. Yeah…yeah…they're great, actually. Really just extraordinary…yeah, I know. I _know_, dammit…yeah. Yeah, ok. See you soon."

The wind that had been blowing around her form slowly wisped away, peeling apart to mingle with the storm. Sakura let out a long sigh, making no effort to move.

Guiltily, Kai and Haruna started to edge their way back inside.

"Were you guys just gonna stand there forever or were you actually gonna speak?"

Both genin squealed. They whipped around to stare at Sakura, who was staring back at them with an unholy amount of amusement on her face and one brow raised above her emerald eyes.

"I thought you said you couldn't do that," Haruna commented, gesturing to the raised brow. Kai reached up and popped her on the back of her head, which resulted in a whispered _ow!_ and an exchange of shoves before the sound of a throat clearing had them standing sheepishly apart.

Sakura shrugged. "Yeah, well, I learned. He was a good teacher, too." She pushed off the wall, coming nearer to the cave. "You guys want something?"

Both genin shook their heads, fast.

"We-we couldn't find you-" Kai faltered.

"The storm woke us up-" Haruna stammered. Both turned to flee back inside towards the safety of sleep.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Sakura held up a hand, halting them. Gritting their teeth, they slowly turned to face her.

"Hmm…" Sakura walked around them in a slow circle. Kai and Haruna exchanged frightened glances. "Haruna, your hands look about good now, and I don't see anything else…it's time to get back to practice."

Haruna blinked at her. "What, _now?_"

Sakura raised a brow. She was right, the genin were finding. That was a _very_ annoying skill. "Yeah, now. Why, you have someplace to go?"

"B-bu-it's like three in the morning!" the girl exclaimed.

"So? It was only like one the last time we did this, and you didn't seem to mind," Sakura retorted. "Oh, don't give me that look; you're the one who decided to get up and eavesdrop on my conversation. Get!"

"But you were speaking into _thin air_! And besides, you said it was perfect the last time!" Haruna protested, stepping out into the storm. Kai gave a gasp of dismay, but oddly, the storm seemed to break around her; a loose circle of calm surrounded the genin.

"Nothing is ever perfect," Sakura replied with a snort. "Go over there; there's more to practice on. And don't you let me see you loosen that stance!"

"And you…" the rogue studied Kai as Haruna went, grumbling, to her assigned place. "What's your chakra type?"

"Wind," Kai replied suspiciously, whirling around as Sakura continued to circle her. "Why?"

Sakura smiled at her. The genin's knees shook. "You're going to learn a jutsu from me. One of my specialties."

Kai stared at her in astonishment. "_You're_ going to teach…me?" she repeated slowly.

"That's right."

The blonde could only blink at her. "Umm…okay…" At home, she couldn't _dream_ of anyone as powerful as Sakura just up and teaching her one of their special jutsus. Why would they give their secrets to someone like her?

Sakura laughed at her. "Don't look so worried, Kai-chan. I promise you you'll like it." She lifted her chin in Haruna's direction, where the genin was thickly encased in a swirl of fog and pulsating blue light. "She seemed to."

Recognition lit Kai's eyes. "You've been teaching Haruna. That's why her hands were all…"

The rogue nodded. "Yup. And now I'm going to teach you." She led Kai over to a secluded area, hiding her from Haruna's view and hiding Haruna from hers. Like the other genin, a bubble of calm seemed to surround her. "Except you're going to learn something just a trifle different…"

* * *

"Alright." Sakura settled against the cave wall, annoyingly cheerful. "I think it's time we got back to the story."

"Yes!" Suke cried, pillowing his head on Haruna's thigh. She rolled her eyes but didn't push him away, a touch of pink on her cheeks. "I mean, what do you do when you wake up in the sky?"

Sakura laughed, stretching out a leg before her. "Well, I'm probably the only one who can give you advice there, not that you'd ever really need it. Kai-chan, Haru-chan, you guys both ready to continue?"

Both the blonde and the brunette merely nodded. There were dark circles under their eyes, bruises on Kai's wrists and knuckles, and Haruna's hands were bandaged again, but there was a proud, fiery glint in both their gazes.

"Ok." Sakura took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

* * *

"The first thing I remember is…purple. And the wind. I opened my eyes, and, instantly, I was hit by a wave of violet; it surrounded me like shadows…"

Sakura's eyes opened slowly, drowsily. This was odd; usually she woke up quick, as fast as the hunted could, but even though the rogue knew something was wrong, it somehow wasn't…important. It was nice, to lie here, surrounded by the glowing, velvet purple…and through the violet veil, to look at the twinkling lights of the midnight stars…

Wait.

_There aren't any stars inside my room…_

Sakura gasped as her mind woke fully, and she jerked around, trying to figure out just where the hell she was. Then she did what any other person in her situation would do.

She screamed so loud the tree roots shuddered.

She was floating, _in the sky_, at least sixty feet above Safeheal and the surrounding territory, her entire body wrapped in shrieking winds and _shimmering purple_, vertically revolving around and around, _with no idea how the __**fuck**__ she had ended up there._

Sakura looked down, trying not to puke her empty stomach. There was Safeheal, right below her, with a huge motherlovin'_ hole_ in its ceiling, right above Sakura's room.

There were little black dots moving around inside the hole. She focused on them, and immediately the rogue could see them as clearly as if they stood two feet away from her. Sakura started hyperventilating.

_**What the-I don't like this…**_ Inner Sakura muttered nervously. _**I so, soooo don't like this…**_

Sakura looked at the first face she focused on.

"Kichi?" she whispered, throat dry. There was no way the girl could have heard her.

But Kichi was already looking up-probably from her scream-crystalline eyes alight with shock. "Sakura!"

"Get me down!" the rogue wailed, past her pride.

Kichi threw up her hands. The fact that she could see the movement clearly nearly made Sakura go into hysterics. _She was sixty feet in the air!_

"And how the hell do you want me to do that?" the colorful kuniochi shouted peevishly. "Baby, I don't even know how you got up there!"

The fire-user turned to look at the other people inside the wreckage of Sakura's room. The girl recognized them-Itachi, Scorpio and Widow all stood beside the fiery kuniochi, looking up at her as she revolved in the sky.

"We heard her scream," Widow said shakily. Sakura heard her too, and her heart started to beat faster still. "Just how-"

"- the hell did she get up there?" Scorpio finished loudly, golden eyes wide.

"I don't know!" Sakura wailed; once again, all those in the room heard her. "I was-I was sleeping and then I was _here!_ I don't know what's going _on_; you have to get me down, you have to-"

"Babe, babe, calm down!" Kichi shouted, soothing her. "Just calm down…the gods know someone needs to…" She muttered.

Itachi made a noise in his throat, almost an interested hum.

Kichi turned to Itachi. "What are you thinking?"

As always, as he turned to Kichi the ninja's face was impassive, though his crimson eyes were a touch wide and his face was a little paler then usual. Sourly, half of Sakura's mind wondered what she'd have to do to coach a _real_ expression on the man's face.

"I am thinking…" the Uchiha's serene voice paused for a moment. "Of the ice winter five years previous…"

"In Snow," Kichi breathed, running a hand through her loose chestnut hair, which was out of its usual braid. "Right after…" the kuniochi smacked herself on the forehead. "I. Am such. A _moron. _Of _course!_"

"Sakura, baby," the kuniochi turned to yell at the girl in the sky; voice calm and coaching. "Listen to me, alright? I need you to reign in your chakra."

The rosette stared at her. "You're insane! I don't fucking _have_ chakra, Kichi!"

"Babe, you're surrounded by it," the rogue told her patiently, voice still soothing. "It's what's holding you up."

Sakura shook her head frantically. "No! No, no, no; that not-"

_**Sakura.**_

At the voice of her inner personality, the girl's mouth closed with a pop.

_**I think they're right**_, Inner Sakura continued slowly, now that she had Outer Sakura's attention. _**Don't you feel it?**_ Taking note of her outer self's mental panic, she added, _**Take a deep breath, and look.**_

Heart thundering in her chest, Sakura took her inner's advice. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and searched inside her body.

What she felt nearly made her scream again.

For the first time in a little over half a year, she felt warm, faintly tingling, powerful _chakra_ running through her body. It pulsed through her veins like slow lightning, curling through her body like mist.

The feeling was…odd. She _remembered_ the sensation of chakra, but she'd gone so long without it, it was strange to have it within her own body. And…

"Sakura, you need to focus," Kichi's soothing voice shattered her musings. "I know it's difficult, but it's alright. Reign in your chakra."

Looking down at the older kuniochi, Sakura took a deep breath, and did just that. Her skills with chakra were rusty-if she was being complimentary-and it took her awhile, but finally, the purple glow around her began to fade. The winds stopped. The rogue gave a sigh of relief.

Which quickly turned into a scream of horror as she began to fall.

Fast.

_Really_ fast.

_**You are so stupid! **_Inner Sakura roared at her, as she continued to plummet downward towards Safeheal, screaming as she went. _**Oblivious! Blind! Moronic! IDIOT!**_

_You aren't helping!_ Outer Sakura roared back, twisting in the air to try and see where she was. All that did was ensure she could _see_ the ground rushing up to meet her, a fact which raised the screams to another octave. _Why don't you do something useful, like-_

"_OOOF!" _Sakura's mental tirade was cut off as she landed squarely on a very hard-and very resilient-surface.

_**Break your fall?**_ Inner Sakura supplied dryly.

_You SUCK,_ she growled back, before lifting her head to see what she'd landed on.

Itachi's dark crimson eyes met hers.

Slowly, Sakura looked down. Realization settled in just as slowly. She'd landed in the stupid bastard's arms.

"Oh, Kami," she said disgustedly, regarding him with narrowed eyes. She would _not_ blush, dammit. "You better not be getting any ideas, Uchiha."

He cocked a brow at her.

"Yes, ideas like _those_," she snapped, wiggling in his hold. Sakura didn't like to be touched. "Put me down."

An amused shine to his dark eyes, he released his hold immediately. With a completely undignified squeal, Sakura dropped to the floor in a heap.

"Ow!" Sakura shot into a sitting position, holding her side. Scorpio and Widow ran to assist her, checking over her bandages. "You jackass!"

Itachi merely looked at her. "You urgently requested to be put down. I complied with your request with the proper haste_._"

The rogue grumbled swear words under her breath as she heaved herself up to stand. "Yeah, well, _some people_" –insert pointed pause/glare- "would question your method."

The Uchiha's eyes glittered.

"Perhaps. But I assure you," he said smoothly. "Whatever method I choose is always more then satisfactory, _Sakura_." His eyes glared straight into hers as he purred her name, turning the sentence from innocent to fraught with meaning.

Sakura opened her mouth, intending to respond, but her lips had forgotten how to form words and she didn't really think the ability would soon return.

"Ooo-kay," Kichi said slowly, stepping in between the two. "I'm going to interrupt the sexual tension here-not that it isn't friggin' hot, mind you-"

"_**KICHI!**_"

"-but it's freezing in here, and Sakura's in rags," she continued smoothly, a wicked glint in her eye as she ignored the fuming rosette. She looked up at the gaping monstrosity that had once been a roof. "Plus, I kinda need to explain…"

"Oh, yeah!" Sakura exclaimed, completely forgetting her earlier anger. The rest of the room gave her odd looks, as they weren't completely used to her weird (read, bipolar) moods yet. "How the hell did you figure out what was happening? How did you know it was my chakra? It's-"

"Babe, I said I would explain, didn't I?" Kichi interrupted her. The kuniochi started to lead her from the room. Suddenly, she looked back, "Oh, Itachi, about the roof-"

The rogue simply nodded. "I shall make the necessary arrangements."

"Good." And with that, Kichi turned around, grasped Sakura gently around the arm, aware of the girl's aversion to touch, and pulled her out of the room.

"W-what-What?" Was all Sakura was able to stammer, as she was pulled through the hallways of Safeheal. She went willingly, her mind in too much of an uproar to protest.

"Calm down," Kichi soothed her, opening a seemingly random door and pushing her inside. "Take a breath, yeah?"

Hands on her temples, Sakura did just that. It took a while before she'd taken enough deep, calming breaths to actually calm down.

"Kichi," she said, admirably calmly when she could finally breathe. "What the hell?"

The brunette raised both hands in consternation. "Ok, fair question. You're probably a little unsettled right now, understandably…"

"Unsettled?" Sakura snarled. "_Unsettled?_ I just woke up in the sky surrounded by purple chakra, and you think I'm just _unsettled? _Kichi, _I'm completely freaking out!"_

The rogue watched her with gleaming silver-blue eyes, silent. With a groan, the pink-haired kuniochi pressed her hands to her temples. "How did you even know what was happening, anyway?"

There was a brief pause. Then, casually:

"Well, for starters, the same thing happened to me."

Sakura's hands fell away from her face, and for a moment she just gaped at Kichi.

"Here, sit over here. I'll go get you some clothes" Taking advantage of her shock, the rogue led Sakura over to the bed that was shoved in the far corner of the simple room they were in.

Sakura sank onto the bed in a daze, watching as Kichi moved over to the open closet. She watched the brunette for a while before speaking.

"_You_ woke up sixty feet in the sky surrounded by purple chakra and blasts of spiraling wind?"

"No. _I_ woke up sixty feet deep in a crater surrounded by _orange_ chakra and gouts of spiraling fire. Hey, see if this fits."

Automatically, she caught the plain black hoodie and mechanically pulled it over her head.

"Wait. _What?!_" she blurted out, as the words finally registered. Her eyes narrowed at the kuniochi before her. "Kichi, I need answers and I need them _now._ I'm really not in the mood for any games."

The girl pouted. An actual growl may have come out from Sakura's teeth; whatever the reason, the brunette sighed and came to sit next to her on the bed.

"Okay, you want the direct truth? Here goes, babe." Kichi took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. "_Basically_, owing to a combination of Yasunari's jutsu and the Sword of Sky, your chakra has changed."

Sakura regarded her with open suspicion. "Changed? How?"

Kichi took another breath. "As you already know, your Sword has changed you. As it is, you're probably wondering why you don't see its effects on your body." Here Sakura nodded. "The reason your body has remained unchanged, even with your new powers, is because the Sword works on your _chakra_ system, not any of your other bodily functions. As you had Yasunari's jutsu suppressing your chakra, you couldn't feel it changing. But it was."

"Wait," Sakura interrupted, throwing up a hand. "I am _completely _confused. What does Nariko have to do with my chakra? And how do _you_ know so much about it? You're no medic."

"Alright. Maybe I should start at the beginning, yeah?" At the pink-haired girl's look, the rogue sighed. "I told you I was hit by Yasunari's jutsu also, right?"

"Yeah…" Sakura said slowly. She didn't get where this was going. "You said he suppressed your chakra for about a week."

"Uh-huh. See, when I was hit, it was just about a month after I got Kosuke. I could already see the effects of the Sword on my chakra." Kichi looked at her. "Before Kosuke, my visible chakra was blue. As time went on, however, it started to lighten, until it turned…well, orange. When I was hit by Yasunari's jutsu, I couldn't feel my chakra for around a week, but when it returned, it returned with a bit of a bang."

The kuniochi paused, chuckling. "I was with Itachi at the time. He brought me to the twins, and they explained what had happened."

"So, what did happen?" Sakura asked, curious. Somehow it was easier to grasp what had happened to Kichi then what had happened to her.

"Her chakra pathways had completely changed, that's what happened." Sakura squeaked at the voice, whipping around to see Scorpio and Widow shoving through the door.

Both the twins smiled at the look on her face, and then Widow continued, "Not only that, but her chakra reserves had magnified to extraordinary levels."

"I don't understand," Sakura said, frustrated, for about the fifth time. She felt like a fucking tape recorder.

The twins sighed and went to sit nearer to her, Widow leaning against the wall and Scorpio sprawled on the chair next to the bed.

"This is so complicated; I hate explaining it," Scorpio grumbled. "Hopefully she gets it faster then you, Kichi."

Widow took over, ignoring Kichi's furious sputters. "Alright, here goes. The powers you guys get from those freaky Swords of yours are basically made of pure energy. In order for you guys to use those powers, there has to be some way for their energy to travel through your body. The Sword works on your chakra pathways, enabling them to handle your new abilities. They are changed in such a way that you don't need to _use_ chakra in order to use your powers-someone could completely drain all of your chakra and you'd still be able to use your abilities, no problem."

"Right," Scorpio added, holding up a hand to hide her yawn. "However, some of your Sword's energy does mix with your chakra-it's not a perfect process. That's why your chakra changes color, and kinda why it amplifies, though that has more to do with Yasunari's jutsu. Like you already know, it represses your chakra so deeply that you don't have access to it. However, during that time the chakra is building, and building, and building-not to mention it's twisting with your Sword energy. When it's finally released-BAM!" Scorpio smacked her palms together. "Instant mega-chakra."

"Oooh..." Sakura considered this. Then she turned to Kichi, jerking a thumb at the twins. "Why couldn't you just say that? That I understood."

The brunette's mouth fell open. "Well, _excuse_ me! Next time I'll just let you rot in the sky, then!"

The rogue stood, muttering to herself. "Go on, babe, get out of here. Go pack your stuff."

Sakura looked at her, confused. "Why?"

Kichi grinned at her. It was not a nice grin. It was a grin Sakura would expect to find on the face of a shark right before being eaten, actually. "Now that you're healed, it's time to go. Get ready, babe. We leave in an hour."

* * *

"Well," Kai said finally. "You certainly handled that well-waking up in the sky, I mean."

Sakura made a face at her, green eyes twinkling. "And you would have handled it better, would you?"

The blonde stuck out her tongue. Sakura laughed. "Anyway, f we're all done making fun of me-" she paused, smiling when both Kai and Haruna lunged to put hands over Suke's mouth. "We'll get on with the story. After we left, Kichi took me to Spinner."

"Sppishar?" Suke wrestled free of his teammates' hold. "I mean, Spinner? Where's that?"

The rogue laughed again. "Spinner's not a place; it's a she. Look, this is what happened next…"

* * *

"It took me less then half an hour to pack. I mean, I only had a case of weapons and medical supplies, Nariko and a spare pair of boots. A rogue lifestyle isn't really conducive to possessions, you know. Kichi only had a little more, so she was done around the time I was. Once we were packed, we were ready to leave. All we had to do was say good-bye…"

Sakura turned to look over Safeheal once more, eyes roving over the stone walls with something very close to sadness. This place had sheltered her for weeks, given her a place to recover after almost being killed (again), and she was more then grateful. But-the girl turned to look at Kichi-she supposed it was time for her to go anyway.

The brunette took a breath, then turned to look Scorpio and Widow, both of whom had come to say good-bye. Itachi, tall and leonine, leaned against the wall. "Well, guys, guess this is it. See you?"

The twins looked at her, golden eyes moving over every inch of the rogue's form. Then they smiled.

"See you," they chorused firmly.

Kichi grinned, shifting to look at Itachi. To him she simply nodded, but the nod was filled with enough of their history to make Sakura wildly curious, though she liked to think she hid it well. "Itachi."

The dark-haired shinobi inclined his head, managing to put the same amount of history in the simple gesture as Kichi's nod. "Kichi."

The kuniochi flashed a smile. Her eyes moved to Sakura. "Go on, babe, say your good-byes. We won't be seeing them any time soon."

Sakura glared at Kichi, who simply smiled back at her. Glowering, the rogue faced the twins.

"Well…" she said hesitantly, shifting from one foot to the other nervously. "I guess this is good-bye, guys."

Scorpio shook her head. "Oh, no, Sakura-chan. Not for good. We'll definitely-"

"Be seeing you," Widow finished. Their eyes moved over her body in much the same way they had moved over Kichi's. "We won't let someone as unique as you get away."

Despite herself, Sakura felt a grin spread over her face. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "For everything."

Both the twins smiled. "Don't mention it, babe," they told her cheerily.

The two of them squealed when Kichi smacked them with her pack. "Hey; uh-uh! Only _I _get to call her that! Pick your own nickname!"

Shaking her head in amusement, Sakura shifted to face Itachi.

He regarded her with the same blank expression as always, eyes Sharingan bright. Silky midnight hair slipped over his shoulder in that same low ponytail, one lock of hair hanging just over his eye the same way it always did during their chess games.

He watched her for a moment longer. Then, with the smooth, sinuous grace of a stalking lion, he pushed himself off the wall and came towards her. He stopped about a foot away from her.

Sakura looked at him. A moment passed in silence, crimson staring into emerald, and then the pink-haired rogue did the only thing she could think to do. She just nodded.

To her surprise, all he did was nod back and step away.

Sakura suppressed a snort. Only with an Uchiha could you have an entire conversation based on nods and eye contact.

A hand brushed her arm; Kichi moved to stand beside her, evidently done beating the twins. "Ready?" she asked.

Casting another look around the place, Sakura pulled her pack onto her shoulder. "Ready."

Without any further ado, the two of them stepped out of Safeheal and into the wilds ahead.

* * *

"We walked in silence for around an hour, until we were safely away from Safeheal. I, as you can probably guess, was _bursting_ with curiosity and had tons of questions for Kichi. What were the Swords? Why were they so legendary? And what did she mean, when she said that if I died, so did she? My patience was about done when-"

"Hello again, Sakura-hime."

Sakura whipped around, a kunai already whizzing towards the voice and two more in her hands. She saw light flare around Kichi, and then a ball of flame whipped past her ear. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the girl's hands were surrounded by flickering flame.

The intruder stepped out of the shadows, a glint of metal in his fingers. Sakura's kunai. "Such a warm welcome. I'm impressed."

Sakura gasped. "Ghost? What are you doing here?" Remembering the last time they had talked, her eyes narrowed. "And what the _hell_ was all that about? Did you want me to get killed?"

Kichi eyed her, fire still coating her hands. "Friend of yours?"

"Not exactly," she growled, glaring at him. His lips, the only visible part of his face, quirked into a smile. "He's the one who sent me to Hiroshi."

"Relax," Ghost drawled, at ease despite the murderous glares that were being directed at him. "It turned out fine, didn't it? Besides, it wasn't my fault. I sent you there to find out information, not to get killed. It's a good thing the fire-child here took care of Hiroshi, or believe me-" his voice turned cold. "-I would have undertaken the pleasure myself."

Sakura snorted in disbelief, but she put her kunai away. It was impossible to doubt the truth in his words. Kichi rolled her eyes, but she let the fire around her hands die.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura demanded. Gods damn it, why couldn't rogue ever speak _plainly?_

Ghost ignored her, turning to Kichi. "Take her to Spinner."

The brunette's eyes narrowed. "_You_ know Spinner."

"_I_ know everyone," he replied, as Sakura grew more and more mystified, and, subsequently, more and more annoyed. "And she needs the training."

"It's not for everyone, _Ghost_," Kichi said icily. "Spinner doesn't take whoever comes to the door."

"Who's Spinner?" Sakura demanded, looking from one to the other.

"She will take Sakura-hime, and you know it," Ghost replied calmly, ignoring the rosette. "And you also know that if anyone can help her, it is Spinner."

"_I_ can help her," Kichi said through gritted teeth. "_Spinner_ doesn't have a Sword."

"Hey! Who the hell is Spinner?" Sakura asked again, waving her hands in front of their eyes. "Guys?"

"No, fire-child. She does not," Ghost allowed, a smirk flickering on his lips. "But Spinner knows the wind, and _you_ do not."

Kichi glared at him, sparks literally jumping from her skin. Ghost just watched her, unperturbed.

"Let's go, babe," she said tightly, turning on her heel.

"Where are we going?" Sakura asked suspiciously, looking at Ghost. She followed Kichi, fingers clenched around Nariko.

A growl came from Kichi's lips. "To take you to Spinner." She whirled to glare at Ghost once again. "Thanks a lot. I was hoping I'd never have to see that pigheaded, stubborn bitch again, you know."

Ghost just smiled. Then he was behind them, his lips brushing once over Sakura's cheek. "I will see you soon, Sakuraa-hime."

Then he was gone.

Kichi stared at where he had stood, her expression murderous. "Who the hell _is_ that guy?"

Sakura sighed. "I have no idea." She looked sideways at her companion. "Who's Spinner?"

"You'll see." Kichi said quietly. "Come on."

And they disappeared into the maze of trees.

* * *

Deep in the cave, Sakura looked at the three genin calmly.

"And so, my trials began."

* * *

**I know I cut it off a little abruptly, but I really needed to update because you guys have been waiting far too long. PLEASE, PLEEEASE review?**


	9. The Training

**Sweet GOD do I love reviews. Thank you once again for all those who reviewed- I never get tired of reading them! Please review more-when you review, you make me happy, and when you do something that makes someone else happy, karma does something to make YOU happy. (Or so I've been told. Karma and I sort of have this ongoing war going on…)**

**Anyway, within these reviews (yay** **for reviews!) there are those of you who have asked me just where I got the inspiration for this story. Here's your answer:**

**I've always had a thing for the underdog; especially those other people seem to just ignore-like Luke from Star Wars, Rogue from X-Men, and, of course, Sakura from Naruto. When I first started watching the show, especially Shippuden, I couldn't believe how her character was portrayed. Here was all this potential, and people just kept casting her aside-Ino, Kakashi, SASUKE…even Naruto does so on occasion. And so I started to think, what if Sakura was forced to leave the village? What if, when she left, she realized just how much she was overlooked by those people and finally realized just how strong she COULD become? Then I started to think about the elements, whose complications, contrast and balance have always inspired me, and a story started to form. Before I knew it, I was writing Four Swords.**

**Now its time for the next chapter of the story, which is EXTREMELY long due to the as-always-insane gap between updates and will hopefully satisfy some of your other questions and cravings. Also, special thanks to itachi's rose, for helping me and inspiring me, as well as just general awesomeness. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present day:_

"Ugh," Sakura commented, leaning in her favorite position against the wall. "That rain's just not stopping, is it?"

Kai glared at her. "You just left us hanging by a thread-a needlessly crypticthread, by the way-and you want to talk about the _weather? _Are you _kidding_ me?"

"Whoa," the rogue whistled, amazed. "Are you channeling your mother? Because, seriously, Kai-chan, that was scary."

Sakura bent down, picking up the old, worn book that lay by her feet. "Speaking of your mother…"

All three of the genin groaned.

"Come on! We want to hear more about _you_," Suke protested, flopping dramatically onto the cave floor. "Our parents are _boring_!"

Sakura hid a smile. "So you guys don't want to hear more about my sister? You seemed interested the last time it was mentioned."

None of the three could deny it. Suke pointed an angry finger at her. "Now that just wasn't fair. There's no need to be all…all…"

"Snarky?" Kai supplied dryly.

"Yeah! Snarky!" the boy finished smugly, folding his arms across his chest in a manner much like his father. "So there!" He glanced at Kai, then back at Sakura, a sheepish expression on his face. "Errr…what does _snarky_ mean, again?"

Haruna rubbed her forehead tiredly. "Read on," she told the rogue. "Please, just read on."

Sakura grinned, managing to do a courtly bow on the floor. "Your wish, Haru-chan, my command."

She opened the book, flipping through the thin, yellowed pages. "Where were we exactly…ah, yes…"

She cleared her throat, and began.

"…I couldn't believe it. All this time, Sakura had a _sister_? How did nobody know about this? How did _I_ not know? I guess that was when I first started realizing Sakura-chan wasn't the person I thought she was…"

* * *

_Taken from Yamanaka Ino's journal:_

"_Sister?_" Naruto was _floored_. No, he was _beyond_ floored, he was-he was-dammit, they didn't _have_ word that could describe how shocked he was. "Sakura-_our_ Sakura-had a _sister?_"

"Uzumaki!" Tsunade bellowed, flashing a quick glance at Chikao Kana. "Sit down!"

"How come we didn't know about this?" Naruto demanded. "Kakashi-sensei-"

Kakashi, however, was preoccupied with something else. He barely spared Sachiko a glance.

"Why are you trying to adopt her?" he demanded, swinging around to look at Kana. "Are you a friend of the Haruno's?"

The man gave Kakashi a smile full of charisma, but there were shadows hidden in his eyes. "What Haruno's are you speaking of, Hatake-san? As I understand it, there are only two left-" his mouth tightened for a moment, unseen by the three others in the room "-and only one that truly matters. Anyway-" he gave a sudden bland shrug. "-I suppose you could say I'm acquainted with the Haruno's, yes."

"He is _not_ my friend," Sachiko said quietly, but with absolute six-year old conviction. Mock it all you will, most of the time a child's conviction is right. "Saku-chan said to stay away from him. She didn't like him."

Kana gave a laugh that didn't reach his ice eyes. "Now, really, is that much of a recommendation?"

Sachiko met his gaze with a fire Naruto recognized. "_I_ don't like you, either," she announced boldly, glaring at the man.

His smile faltered.

"Chikao-sama, why don't we pick this up another time?" Tsunade suggested quickly. "We're not in any hurry here-we all want to make the right decision for Sachiko, right?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Kana agreed instantly, bowing. "I hope the right decision _is_ made." He nodded at the two jounin before he walked out the door.

Once he was gone, Tsunade turned to Sachiko. "You can go back to Shizune now, Sachi-chan."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Sachiko said quietly. She got up and disappeared out the door.

The Hokage sighed and rubbed her eyes. "She's only been here two years, and before that she lived with relatives until her family decided it was time for her to return here. Her mother died a year ago, so she was living with Sakura, but now the poor kid has no one, and Shizune can't afford to care for her-her shinobi and medical duties are too demanding. Chikao Kana is a high-standing individual, and his proposal of adoption has been the only one we've had for her, but there are-complications."

"What complications?" Naruto asked innocently. "It doesn't seem so complicated to me."

Tsunade sighed. "Chikao Kana…was friends with some of the people who died in the…accident two years ago."

"Does he plan to avenge them?" the mild question was Kakashi's.

_Sakura_. The word hung between them like a bind.

Tsunade met their eyes defiantly. "I don't know. He says the friendships were ones of convenience, not choice. But the Elders don't want to put an innocent child in the hands of her sister's supposed enemy, whether he says he isn't or not."

Kakashi raised his brows. Since when were the Elders so compassionate?

"Alright, fine, _I_ don't want to put an innocent child in the hands of her sister's supposed enemy, whether he says he isn't or not," the blond snapped, seeing his look. "Enough of this. I brought you here because I have a mission for you."

Naruto straightened instantly. "You're letting us go after Sakura-chan?" he cried.

"No, Naruto," Tsunade's voice was weary. Naruto visibly slumped. "This is about something else. As I'm sure you're aware, Sound attacks have started again."

"It's really Sound?" Kakashi asked. "I thought that was just a rumor."

"It's really Sound, and they're looking for something." The Hokage's voice was grim. "They've attacked other villages this time, and the attacks are getting worse. The Hidden Mist Village suffered from a huge tsunami recently and their defenses are incredibly low. They have asked for my help guarding some of their treasures, so I am sending them you two. The mission is A-rank."

Naruto clenched his fists. "We could be out there, _finding Sakura, _and you're sending us to be-to be_ guard dogs_ for some stupid rich-"

"You have a year and six months to complete this mission," Tsunade said loudly, talking over Naruto.

Kakashi blinked. "Isn't that a little long? It should only take six months at most…"

"_A year and six months!_" Tsunade bellowed. "And, while we're on the subject, Sakura's last sighting was near Mist. You are expressly forbidden from using your extended time limit to track her down, you get me? _Expressly forbidden_."

"Oh." Kakashi's eyes widened underneath his mask. "_Oh."_ He bowed jerkily. "We accept."

"Wh-the hell we do!" Naruto yelled, jabbing a finger at Tsunade. "_I'm_ going to look for Sakura, not be a guard to some pansy-ass Mist basta-_mmmf!_"

Kakashi clapped a hand over the blond's mouth, keeping the pressure as he struggled. "The mission begins tomorrow?" he asked pleasantly.

"Tomorrow." The Hokage said firmly. She eyed the two intensely. "Good luck."

Kakashi nodded and poufed out of the Hokage Tower, taking Naruto with him.

Once they were at the bridge, Kakashi turned to Naruto. Ignoring his flailing, he said sternly, "I'm going to explain. Don't scream at me."

Carefully, he took his hand away. Naruto didn't scream; he just glared.

"Tsunade isn't giving us a guard mission," he said quietly, his one dark eye for once completely serious. "She's giving us time. We don't have to _be_ in the village unless there's an attack, so most of that year and a half we have to _ourselves_. To do whatever we _want_ to. So, we're going to do what we've been _expressly forbidden_ not to do instead."

"Oh, gods…" Naruto sank down onto the bridge, hands in his hair. "We're looking for Sakura."

Kakashi nodded. He stared up, away from Naruto, casting his gaze on the forgotten land that had once held his old team.

"Yes." He didn't look away. "We're looking for Sakura. Starting tomorrow."

* * *

Sakura closed the book with a sigh. "Bastards."

Haruna and Suke exchanged glances. Finally, Suke said, "Um, they may be boring, but they're still our _parents_, you know."

The rogue looked at them, startled. "Oh, no-not Naruto and Kakashi. They're decent, for, you know, village shinobi. I was referring to the Konoha political system."

"Oh." Suke said sheepishly. "My mistake."

Sakura just waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. Mistakes are part of being human."

"They're not part of being ninja," Haruna muttered cynically.

"Maybe not," the rosette agreed. "But, like it or not, ninjas _are_ human. You can't separate the two completely, though we all try. You are going to hurt. To suffer. To make grave mistakes. It's human nature and I wish I could tell you different, but the truth is that you have a job that sees a lot of suffering."

"So how do we do it?" Kai asked, serious for once. "How do we stop ourselves from being human when we need to be ninja?"

Sakura shrugged. "Like everything else, you do the best you can. And when that's not enough, you go to your friends."

"Sakura…" Suke said, and then hesitated.

She looked over. "Yes?"

"Why are you telling us all this?" he asked, blinking cerulean eyes. "I mean, this stuff…it changes you. Why are you telling us all of it?"

Sakura just looked at him for a moment. Just like his father, people thought he was oblivious until he asked just the right questions. Only then did the truth come out.

"Because," she said simply. "I think you guys can handle it."

Sakura shifted; the noise was loud in the silence of the cave. She smiled. "Now, let's get back to the story. What I told you before was just the beginning. Here's where things really start to heat up…"

* * *

"I'm going start from when I actually met Spinner, not from where we left off. The journey was boring, anyway; Kichi and I mostly just talked about Swords and the ninja arts, except for a few times when we got caught in the middle of an ongoing war between these two pigheaded armies-but that's another story, maybe I'll get a chance to tell it when you're older. Anyway, there were only a few questions Kichi wouldn't answer. One was her past, which I obviously understood, and the other was about who the hell Spinner actually _was_. By the time we got to her place-she lived between Stone and Mist-I was ready to beat the information out of her with a tree…"

"This is it," Kichi said tightly, gesturing towards the house above them. It was set on a low mountain and about a two mile hike from where they were standing.

Sakura looked at her. "Okay. Are you going to tell me who this chick is now, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

Kichi grinned her usual wild grin, then her shoulders tightened and then she was serious. "Fine. She's the world's biggest, oldest bitch, that's who she is."

Sakura sighed. It had taken about a week to get to Spinner's house, and over the course of that week she had gotten the chance to get to know Kichi a little better. Once they had established some iron traveling rules (such as never wake Kichi up early unless you wanted to be beaten unconscious and then literally wake up rotating on a giant spit over a roaring fire, or never touch Sakura's possessions unless you wanted to be taught to fly by a swinging tree and then end up sixty miles away right between those two royally pissed off armies that had been chasing you over the last three days) the two had gotten along fairly well. In fact, it was almost scarily easy to connect with the brunette kuniochi. She'd told Kichi things she wouldn't have told other rogue at sword point, and the girl had done the same with her, all in the course of one _week._

Call it premature, but Sakura was reasonably sure she was acquiring a new best friend. Which made it easier and easier to realize that as they got closer and closer to Spinner's house, Kichi got more and more tense.

"Kichi," Sakura said sternly. "Listen, if this is about your past or something, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. I just want to know who she is."

Kichi gritted her teeth, and a wave of heat shimmered from her skin. She was in excellent control of the abilities Kosuke had given her, but she had a temper as hot as the fire she controlled and it tended to show. Then she sighed, stretching her arms over her head.

"Fine, babe. Amarante Spinner is known as Spinner the Untouchable, mostly due to two facts: one, she is the oldest rogue living, and none of the villages have been able to find her for thirty plus years; two, she's also incredibly powerful. She has the best chakra control out of anyone in the world; she crafts specialty weapons of all kinds that are absolutely amazing; her poisons are the deadliest out of them all-but really makes her dangerous is the fact that she knows every ninjutsu every created. That also makes her a good teacher for you, since learning wind jutsu will help you control your powers. It's how I learned control."

Sakura felt her jaw drop. "_Every ninjutsu ever created? _Tha-that's _impossible_. It would take like-like a thousand years!"

Kichi gave an unpleasant snicker. "Baby, she's older then that by like two million. And don't ask me how she did it; she never told me. I haven't seen the bitch in forever, mind-and I was damn happy about that, actually, until your friend _Ghost _made me come here."

"All he said was 'take her to Spinner'," Sakura said indignantly. "He didn't make you do anything."

"No, but I was debating whether or not to take you here anyway and he just had to raise the point and then be all logical about it," Kichi seethed. Seeing Sakura open her mouth, the rogue added "Spinner has the only scrolls that were ever written about the Legendary Four Swords, and I wanted you to read them. _I _can't explain everything, and I don't know a lot about the specifics of Nariko and your powers."

Whoa. She had information about Nariko? Sakura looked up at the house, intrigued, then back at Kichi. "Are we ever going to go _meet_ her?" she asked, as gently as she could, considering how excited she was.

Kichi looked up at the house like it was the doorway to hell. "Fine, but I'm warning you, babe. Spinner is fond of booby traps, and those tend to get me riled, so I _might_ kill her before you even have a chance to talk to her."

Sakura sighed. "Come on, you. Let's go see the big, bad Spinner."

Kichi sighed, but motioned her forward. Grumbling all the while, she led the rosette rogue towards the house.

When they were about a quarter mile from the house, Kichi slowed, tension edging every line in her body. "Looks good so far…" she muttered, one hand touching Kosuke. "I don't see any-"

_**BOOOOOOOM.**_

The explosion threw Sakura to the side; she hit the ground with a grunt. Gray smoke filled the mountain, obscuring her vision as yet another crash detonated around them.

Coughing through the smoke, Sakura struggled to her feet and drew Nariko. The winds she had not yet learned to control cleared the air around her until she stood in a circle of calm.

"You fucking bitch!" Kichi's voice blared through the gray. Yup, _riled_ was a good word for how she sounded. "Why don't you stop using booby traps and actually fight yourself?"

"Kichi?" Sakura shouted. "Where are you?"

Another explosion rocked the ground; there was a bright flash of color to her left. She walked towards it, the winds around her clearing the smoke in her path. Sure enough, there was Kichi, Sword drawn and covered in fire from her hair down to her toes and glowing with orange light.

"Get off my mountain!"

Sakura jumped at the sound of the old, irritated voice; it sounded close. Kichi just bared her teeth.

"Like hell I will!" the brunette shouted back, the flames around her head flaring. "Come out here and make me, you old shrew!"

_**BOOM.**_

_**BOOM.**_

_**BOOMBOOOMBOOOOOOM.**_

The explosions came thick and fast; Sakura twisted through the air trying to avoid the deadly shrapnel.

A rock hit her side and she fell, gasping, onto the ground. She gritted her teeth against the pain.

_I, _she proclaimed silently. _Am going to __**kill**__ Kichi._

_**I think we have to get in line, **_Inner Sakura replied in a strained voice.

_Huh? _The voice of her inner psyche directed her attention back to Kichi, who was deftly dodging bomb after bomb after bomb. A black figure strode towards her through the gray smoke that now covered the mountain.

Kichi arched over the last bomb, twisting her body into a spectacular flip just as the figure materialized out of the smoke. She landed straight in front of the figure, clenching fists that were still burning with flame. "Spinner."

_That's Spinner?_ Sakura stared. _Whoa._

Thick white hair was cut short, spiking around her head in a regal crown, while elegant fringe framed her tan, wrinkled face. Dark sapphire eyes peered out from a web of wrinkles, and her lips were pursed under a strong, aquiline nose. She was dressed in a tank top and loose pants, and was rail-thin with tattoos spreading outward up her body. She held a gnarled walking stick carved with intricate symbols in one hand, but no other weapons.

And she still looked damned dangerous. Especially when she opened her mouth.

"Mariko Kichi," Spinner sneered, not looking the least bit intimidated about facing a girl made of flame. "What are you doing back on my mountain?"

Kichi rolled her eyes, the fire around her face swirling. "Oh, don't give me that 'my mountain' shit, you vicious old harpy. It doesn't impress me and I'm not leaving until we've had a chance to talk."

Sakura got up, coughing, from her place on the ground. Wincing at the pain in her side, she made her way over to the two of them after making sure Nariko was still in her hand.

Spinner seemed oblivious to her approach. "Why would I want to talk to you, little girl?"

The brunette seethed at the words, but then she took a deep breath. The fire around her disappeared as she calmed down. "Believe me; I'm not too keen on the prospect myself, hag. I have a proposal for you."

"I'm not interested in teaching a new student," Spinner snapped. "Especially not one who needs a little whore like you to introduce them."

Sakura froze a few feet away from the two. _Whoa. She did __**not**__ just say that._

Kichi once again exploded into flames. "_I am not a whore!"_

"Sure dress like one," came the sarcastic reply.

The fire-user pointed a finger at her. "Listen up, you pompous, lunatic bitch-"

"I don't have to listen to anything you say, you arrogant child-"

Sakura forgot about her shock and anger and just stared at them. _They're bickering…like a pair of five year olds. _She blanched at a particularly venomous phrase. _Like a pair of really __**poorly-mouthed**__ five year olds._

Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck prickled. She jerked around with the reflexes of a cat-to see a teenage girl standing behind her, wearing a shinobi's clothes.

The two just stared at each other for a minute. Sakura's grip on Nariko tightened minutely.

"Hi," she said cautiously.

The girl smiled at her. Then her eyes moved past her, towards where Spinner and Kichi were still locked in a shouting match. At least Kichi was no longer on fire, Sakura was relieved to see.

The girl shook her head in reproach, switching the rosette's attention back to her.

_They can do this_, the girl remarked, using hand signs. _For hours._

Sakura tilted her head to the side. "You know them? Both of them?" she asked, curious.

The girl nodded. _Oh, yes. Spinner is my mother, _she explained, still speaking in signs. The pink-haired rogue wondered why. _Her relationship with Mariko Kichi is…complicated._

"Everything with that girl is complicated," Sakura muttered. Louder she added, "Yeah, so it seems."

The girl smiled at her for the second time, her eyes shining with laughter. They were the same sapphire hue as her mother's. She had a willowy frame and hair the color of sunlight secured in a ponytail.

_I am Whisper_, she signed. Finally, Sakura realized she was mute. _My mother is coming to speak with you._

_**Oh, FUCK.**_

For once, Sakura was in complete agreement with her inner personality. She whirled around to face the older rogue, just in time to duck the walking stick that whistled harmlessly over her head. She just noticed Whisper disappear before a wrinkled face was stuffed into hers.

"_This _is the child you want me to train? _This?_" Spinner demanded, throwing out a hand in disgust. "Look at her! She has _pink_ hair, for Kami's sake! She's a little girl-how old is she, _ten_? Eleven?"

Sakura's temper flared, and Inner Sakura hijacked her mouth, "_**ExCUSE me? You're calling ME little? What are you, like four nine? Come over here and let's see how much of a little girl YOU are, you pretentious little bitch!**_"

Spinner eyed her for a moment, a sardonic smirk on her lips. "Well, she's got guts; I'll give her that. But she's going to need more then that for me to teach her."

Kichi just shrugged, though her eyes burned. "I think she's tough enough to handle it. So does Ghost."

Shock flared in the old woman's sapphire eyes before they narrowed. "When the hell did you meet _Ghost_?"

"_She_ introduced me. The little girl you're so eager to boot off your doorstep," the brunette said, sickly sweet. "Don't be so quick to judge on appearances, darling."

Spinner narrowed her eyes. "Enough of your cute little nicknames, girl. And you," she demanded, swinging around to face Sakura, who did her best not to jump. "Why should Ghost speak to you?"

"Because she holds Nariko," Kichi spoke up, before the pink-haired rogue could answer. "And because she speaks to wind."

"What the hell does that mean?" Sakura demanded. At this, Spinner raised a critical brow and Kichi gave her a furious look.

Sakura lowered her voice. "Well, what? It's not my fault you never tell me anything."

"Yes, but you could have at least _pretended_ to go along with me here-"

"Show me Nariko," the old woman ordered, ignoring their bickering.

Sakura hesitated. Then, carefully, she drew out her Sword and laid it flat on her palms as she had done for Hiroshi.

"Ha," Spinner scoffed. "That's probably just a regular old katana. I knew you were lying. Face it, child. You're not strong enough for me."

Sakura's eyes narrowed to slits. Overhead, there was a low boom of distant thunder, and then a violet light began to edge the rogue all around. Spinner's eyes widened imperceptibly.

"Do not even _dare_ question my strength," the girl hissed, clenching her fingers around Nariko and swinging it level. Blue lightning began to crackle along the blade, lightning that spread to coat her skin and sent her hair on end, electricity sparking from the tips. The sky started to crawl with black clouds "_No one_ calls me weak, old woman. Not the rogue, not the villages, and certainly not you. You want to tell me I'm not strong? Then you train me and prove just how much I still have to learn. Or don't train me at all. But _never_ call me weak. "

Kichi was smug. "I told you so."

"The Sword of Sky…" Spinner whispered, awestruck. "Incredible…"

Kichi looked uneasily at the approaching clouds, some of which were racing with lightning. "Pull it back, babe. You've proven your point."

Sakura looked at her, eyes glowing violet. Then she shook her head abruptly, blinked, and, with visible strain, pulled her powers back into her control.

Once that was done, the brunette looked back at a much more thoughtful Spinner then Sakura had seen yet.

"Well?" the fire-user demanded brusquely. "Are you up for it, hag? You may be the only one who can train her. What do you think?"

By the time Kichi had finished speaking, Spinner's normal sneer had returned. "I think you're an idiot, as usual. All right, I'll take the runt-but if I do, you'll have to help me. I may have taught you alone, but some things only someone with a Sword will be able to teach her. Now that that's settled…" the old woman wheeled, strutting up the rough mountain path with the zeal of someone much, much younger. "Come along. We have a lot of work to do."

Sakura and Kichi looked at each other blankly, a little stunned by the sudden agreement. As one, the two shrugged and began to follow after her.

They reached the house a little after dawn, both Sakura and Kichi panting from the thin mountain air. In the doorway was Whisper, a basket in her hands.

"Whisper!" Kichi said, delighted. "I haven't seen you in forever! How have you been?"

The blonde shrugged, settling down the basket so she could speak. _Well enough. It is good to see you, too, Kichi. I am glad both you and my mother are still alive. Come inside and eat. There is venison stew._

"I just want to know how the hell you got up here before we did, caught a deer, _and_ managed to cook a meal," Sakura huffed, following them into the doorway.

"My daughter is the best tracker you will ever meet in your life; she can find anything even when no one else can. As for how she got up here before you, you are very slow. Oh, and, by the way-" Spinner turned back to Kichi, contempt twisting her features. "You were wrong about her abilities. She's not just a wind-speaker; she's a storm-raiser."

"I say again, what the hell does that mean?" Sakura grumbled, still panting.

Spinner barked out a laugh, shoving past her into the kitchen. "You must be as witless as you look, child. They're just what they sound like-you have the ability to _raise storms_, and _speak_ to _wind_. You can call gales of wind, lightning, hurricanes, storm clouds. You can have the wind carry words back to you, and carry words to others. Yours is an element many will underestimate, Haruno Sakura of the Storm, as they do the rest of your gifts. I intend to train you to use them all."

* * *

"And that is how I came to be under the tutelage of Amarante Spinner, the Untouchable Warrior," Sakura concluded.

"Wow," Suke said, looking up at her with wide eyes. Haruna's head was pillowed on his stomach, and there was still the hint of a blush on his cheeks. "Was she right about your powers?"

"As a matter of fact, she was. I can do everything she said I can do-hear and speak to people across vast distances using the wind, call lightning and wind and storms, bend the air and sky to my will…" The rogue grinned. "…all thanks to Nariko. And thanks to Spinner, I learned to control it. As well as many other useful things."

"So you were-_wind-speaking_-above Safeheal?" Haruna asked thoughtfully. "That's how you heard everything?"

The rogue nodded. "It's funny, actually. I'm the first wind-speaker combined with a storm-raiser there's ever been with the Sword of Sky-according to Spinner, only the first wielder had that combination."

"Was the training hard?" Kai asked, blunt as always.

The pink-haired ninja laughed. "Of course it was hard. Nothing that's worth it is ever easy, sweetheart. Spinner's training was grueling, terrifying, infuriating, impossible _work_, and it was just what I needed."

Sakura looked out at the storm, where sheets of rain were still falling from the black sky. "We're a little short on time, so I want to get through this part fast."

"What's the rush?" Haruna wanted to know, a concerned frown on her lips though she still rested lazily against Suke. "You weren't in a hurry before."

'No, but I have to leave soon." Seeing their looks, Sakura gave a reassuring smile. She reached out a hand to smooth Haruna's silvery hair. "Don't worry; I'm coming back. There's just something I have to take care of, so I sent for someone to stay with you while I'm gone."

"What do you have to do?" Haruna asked suspiciously, pushing herself upright. Suke made a noise of protest that had his face flaming scarlet when both Kai and Sakura looked at him quizzically.

Sakura brushed her question aside. "Nothing of consequence, really. I just wanted to make sure you guys got to hear some of the story while I was gone, so I sent for a member of the Four."

"Who is it?" Kai and Suke asked simultaneously.

Sakura laughed again. "You'll know when they come. Anyway, I'm going to explain this quick, and then we're going to get to the next, more important part of the story. Here goes."

"Kichi and I stayed in the mountains for a whole year. During that entire time, she and Spinner trained me. I learned to be faster then I already was, until I as fast as the wind itself, and I learned to be strong in muscle as well as chakra. I gained greater mastery over weapons, though my greatest increase was in ninjutsu. Spinner taught me an endless amount of jutsu concerning wind, which, as Kichi had said, helped me control my Sword abilities. The technique was simple, really. As I learned to control wind the traditional way, with jutsu, I applied that same rigidness when working with my powers. Slowly, I learned control. And with that control came strength."

"So what did you actually _do_?" Suke demanded.

Sakura considered the question. "Well…"

* * *

_The following are scattered memories from Haruno Sakura's time with Amarante Spinner describing her training:_

"Spinner had me do things like taking down thirty men with nothing but a kunai…"

_Sakura whirled within the fray, feeling the quick clench and release of her muscles as they met resistance, the pull of the blade in her hand when it dragged across flesh. She felt the hot blood of her enemies coat her body, knowing they were no match for her speed or her strength. They were no match for her at all._

"Or killing an entire army armed with nothing but three or four jutsus she had taught me not an hour ago…"

_The wind whistled, heavy with blood and the scent of death. Before her, again and again, the men fell. To her left, Sakura could see Kichi deep within the battle, fire streaming from her hands. As the men rushed her, she lifted her own arms and sent the wind to them, as deadly as Kichi's fire._

"Or bringing down water from a stream on the highest mountain peak, climbing with nothing but my bare hands and feet…"

_The air was cool on Sakura's back; the stone warm under her stomach. Muscles straining, she hoisted herself further up the wall, cursing her body's weakness. Blood streamed from the cracked skin between her knuckles and toes and still she kept onward. She was no weakling. She'd bested men and she'd bested the sky. This mountain would not best __**her.**_

"With Kichi I learned to hear messages across distances that would shock you, to ride the wind…"

_Sakura hovered in the sky upon a plume of air, listening to the wind. She heard Kichi's words thrown back to her, through the mountains. She smiled in satisfaction._

"To raise lightning and wind on a whim…"

_Sakura stood in the midst of a whirlwind, arms stretched out to her sides. She laughed as lightning caressed her skin, as the wind wheeled towards the sky._

"Whisper even taught me how to track."

_"But there was no trail, no blood on the leaves or footprints," Sakura protested, following Whisper to where the corpse of a young ninja lay, a kunai through his neck. "There weren't even broken twigs. How did you even know he was there?" The mute smiled at her. __What you see is not always what is there. You must learn to rely on other senses, ones not so commonplace._

"All in all, it was hard, but necessary. Sometimes it was even fun. Of course Itachi knew Spinner, so he stopped in a few times. This time he brought Kisame with him-he and Kichi went drinking nearly every night, so Itachi and I had time to ourselves…"

_"NO!" Sakura pounded her fist on the ground, causing a minor earthquake. His expressionless face a trifle smug, Itachi steadied the chessboard. "There is no fucking way that's checkmate! No fucking WAY!" She looked up to see Itachi's raised brow. "Hey, don't give me that; I was paying perfect attention. If you hadn't started that damn brute force vs. stealth debate I would have fucking won…" He gave her a look. Sakura's world flamed red. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU DOUBT THAT? You know what, you cocky bastard? Rematch. Right here, right now. Let's see you beat me this time!"_

"And Kichi and I learned a lot about each other, and about the Swords. We read from Spinner's scrolls and learned tons of facts about them, like where they came from and who first had them. The most interesting fact was that in ten years, the bond that killed Kichi when I or another Sword wielder got killed would dissipate. Through Kichi's visions-remember when she said she could see things, back in Safeheal? -we also learned the next Sword to come; the Sword of Stone, Earth's representative. Kichi couldn't tell who it was, but she knew where it would appear. Anyway, Kichi and I soon grew to be true best friends…"

_"For the love of all things holy!" Spinner yelled, striding up the hill. An invisible force pried the two apart, one of the insane number of jutsus the woman had at her disposal. "Can you two not stop fighting for more then five minutes at a time? You two are the only ones with Swords right now-YOU HOLD EACH OTHER'S LIVES IN YOUR HANDS. Learn to get along, before I lock you in a damn cave and see which one of you claws out of it, Swords be damned!" Spinner whirled and stomped back down to the house, muttering uncomplimentary things as she went. Sakura sighed. "She's right, you know. We do need to learn to trust each other-as much as we can." She hesitated. "What I mean is-" "No, babe, I got you," the brunette interrupted. "I'll tell mine first." And so, not five months after the two had first come to Spinner, Mariko Kichi and Haruno Sakura each told the story that had led them to become rogue…_

* * *

"Ohh, are you finally going to tell us the story of how you got kicked out of Konoha?" Kai interrupted eagerly, leaning forward. Suke and Haruna sat straight up.

Sakura gave a small smile. "Nope. Still a long way off from that." (**A/N: I know, I'm an evil little child. But you love it.**)

This statement was met by general groaning.

"What about Kichi's story, then?" Kai demanded, not one to give up.

"That's something you'd have to ask Kichi," Sakura replied, stretching her arms over her head. "Without her permission I can't tell it to you."

"Fine," Kai muttered, defeated. "Then tell us the origins of the Swords. You said you learned where they came from?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, Kichi and I learned the truth within Spinner's scrolls. The legend that Hiroshi initially told me, about the gods fashioning the Swords, is semi-true. See, according to the scrolls, way, _way_ back in time, so far that their names have been long lost; there were four rogue who caught the attention of the gods. Each had grown strong in their own way."

Sakura's voice grew dreamy and wise. "The first grew strong by chance, and was gifted with the Sword of Light, for fire, above all others, is an element of risk and chance. The second grew strong through will, and was gifted with the Sword of Sky, for air, above all others, is an element of surprise and will. The third grew strong by design and was gifted with the Sword of Stone, for earth, above all others, is an element of steadiness and design. The last of the four grew strong by choice and was gifted with the River Swords, for water, above all others, is an element of freedom and choice. These Swords increased their power, and tied the four of them together. But, the gods gave them a task along with the Swords. The gods had seen how the rogue lived, scurrying into the shadows and hiding from the villages, too restricted to ever use their real power. The gods gave the Four their Swords, and in return they were to help the rogue by doing…something. That part of the scroll was missing."

"Whoa," Suke said breathlessly. "It sounds like you memorized that straight from the scroll."

Sakura smiled at him. "I did, actually. I read it so many times the words kind of stuck."

"It sounds like you learned a lot with Spinner," Haruna commented, propping her head on her elbows. "And I'm not just talking about the Swords. But a year's kind of a short time to learn all of this in, isn't it?"

"It would have been, except for two reasons. Firstly, Spinner's training was extremely rough-what would take five years to learn normally only took a year with her. Sure, it made you want to kill her in increasingly painful and creative ways, but I can't deny it was effective," Sakura explained. "And, secondly…well, remember when I said about my trials beginning? I wasn't just talking about Spinner's training, hard though it was. I was talking about much bigger things…"

* * *

"See, the entire year I spent training with Spinner, we'd been getting reports about the activities of Sound. Like the year before, they'd been going raiding in force, but the year I was with Spinner their attacks started becoming more unified. They started hitting shops, stores, bars, and libraries…searching for something. None of the reports held anything that was really all that pressing, until one day we got a report that shocked the hell out of all of us. I remember that day clearly. I had just turned seventeen a week previous…"

"Kichi."

Nestled among tall, soft spires of green grass, her chestnut hair spread out over the ground instead of in its usual braid, the girl did not move.

Sakura sighed, letting her body fall back against the tree branch it rested on. She was bored. Whisper was away, Spinner was doing…whatever Spinner did when she wasn't training, and now Kichi was napping with absolute _no_ consideration for her feelings whatsoever…

After a moment's contemplation, Sakura flipped to lie on her stomach, where she held the brunette kuniochi in her direct line of sight, and decided to try again.

"_Kichi_."

The brunette stirred slightly, an arm rising over her head. Her eyes remained closed.

_Screw being polite._

"_KICHI, WAKE THE HELL UP!_"

The rogue shot into a sitting position, sending spiraling gouts of fire in all directions. "What? What?"

Sakura flipped backwards over her tree, hovering in the air to avoid the flames that shot in her direction. "Are you trying to burn the forest down?" she yelled, sending winds to direct the fire away from the trees. "Damn crazy person…"

"Oh, it's just you," Kichi said disappointedly, flopping back to her original position as Sakura touched down next to her. She waved a hand and the fire dissipated, a tendril rising over her head. She played with it absently as she talked, twisting it into shapes. A screeching monkey jittered over her head, followed by a sparrow and then a girl of flame. "Well, I told you not to wake me up early. Did we not have this discussion on the road?"

"It's three in the afternoon, Kichi. In what place would that _ever_ be classified as early?"

The brunette gave a lazy smile. The fire over her head reshaped itself to a shot glass, a katana, a dragon. "My place."

"Because so many people want to go _there_," Sakura muttered sarcastically. Kichi stuck out her tongue. "Oh, yes, that solves everything. Just stick your tongue in it."

The fire-user gave a wolfish grin. "I know that usually solves all of _my_ problems."

"_**Mariko Hisano Kichi!**_"

Whisper was coming up the path towards them, and the two were laughing (against Sakura's will) when Kichi's laughter stopped abruptly, the sound sticking in her throat. Her eyes went cloudy.

Sakura had seen this before; Kichi's visions of the future often came at inopportune times. Whisper smiled at her as she finally reached the two. Sakura sighed and settled down to wait, crossing her arms above her head.

And shot straight upward when Kichi gave a sudden, bloodcurdling screech that echoed through the mountains. She jerked out of her calm state, panting, and gripped Kosuke hard in a bone-white hand.

"What is it?" Sakura whispered, reaching automatically for Nariko.

Kichi, bent over with her hands on her knees, just shook her head. She recovered her breath in the next moment enough to wave a hand, and in the next moment the three rogue were full-out sprinting towards Spinner's house.

Sakura was fast, faster then any rogue she'd ever met. Spinner attributed her speed to Nariko, stating the Sword had obviously made her as fast as the wind. Sakura argued it was the result of being forced to survive on taijutsu alone for half a year. Whatever the reason, normally she could outstrip Kichi easily. But the panicked brunette matched her stride for stride, eyes stricken with horror, until they burst through the doorway to Spinner's house, Whisper a hair's breathe behind them.

They found the old woman sitting at the table, a white paper in her hands.

"Do you know what I just saw?" Kichi yelled, sparks flying from her hair. Sakura blinked in surprise; true, Kichi and Spinner had never gotten along, but the kuniochi had never spoken _this_ disrespectfully. "_Do_ you?"

"Control yourself!" Spinner snapped. "It's not going to help anyone if you panic!"

"I think now is the perfect time to panic!" Kichi threw out her hands, glittering with orange light. "We're dead! All of us, we're dead!"

"What happened?" Sakura demanded, hair on end. Her sharp gaze switched from Spinner to Kichi. "Kichi?"

The brunette shook her head, at a loss for words. She looked at Spinner. "How did they possibly find _out_?"

"I don't know how they found out, but they did," Spinner snapped hoarsely, standing. "It's impossible. There's no way _all_ of them were so careless… there's no way _he_ was…"

"What?" Sakura thrust herself between the two. "What happened?"

Kichi stared at Spinner in confusion. "What are you talking about? Who was careless?"

Spinner looked back at Kichi, equally confused. "What are _you_ talking about?"

The brunette shook her head. "You first."

"As long as someone answers the goddamn question; _soon_," Sakura growled, beyond the limit of her patience.

Spinner spun to look at her. "The villages have received multiple reports stating sightings of various missing-nin, complete with pictures; that's what happened. Sightings of missing-nin believed to dead. For years."

"Holy…fucking…shit." Kichi sank down onto a chair. "Missing-nin like Uchiha Itachi?"

"Missing-nin exactly like Uchiha Itachi," the old woman agreed, gritting her teeth. "And others; there was a whole list." She picked up the paper, handing it to Sakura. "Here."

Sakura plucked the paper from her fingers. Meeting the eyes of the other three in the room, she started to read the names aloud.

"Uchiha Itachi. Hoshigaki Kisame. Sasori. Deidara. Hidan. Zetsu…" Sakura looked up. "_I_ didn't even know half these people were alive. How did the _villages_ find out?"

"Does it look like I know?" Spinner hissed, banging her walking stick on the ground. "Unlike you, I am smart enough to realize that someone must have _told _them. But as to the identity of the traitor, I am as clueless as you always are."

Sakura groaned and buried her face in her hands, ignoring the insults. Spinner got snappy when she was scared, a trait not uncommon among the four of them. "The only person it could be is another rogue…but why would they let the _villages_ know? And who's powerful enough to take _pictures_ of _Uchiha Itachi _and not get killed?"

_There are not many who are powerful enough to even __**see**__ him, _Whisper added. _The henge he wears protects him from just this kind of situation. Or it should have._

"I don't think it's one person." Kichi said softly.

The other three turned, surprised. There was a moment of sharp silence before Spinner spoke.

"Considering your very ladylike reaction to this news before, I gather it was not what you saw in your vision."

"Aren't you the smart one," Kichi mocked without any real heat. "No, as a matter of fact, that was _not_ what I saw in my vision. What _I_ saw was full-blown war."

"Villages war all the time," Spinner scoffed dismissively. "You and your tender heart. If that is all you saw, I hardly think it was worth your overreaction…"

Kichi brushed this off impatiently. "Not war between the villages. War between _rogue_ and the villages. As in war between villages and _not_ missing-nin, _not_ other village shinobi, and _not_ an organization, but _rogue _shinobi."

Spinner sat straight down on the floor. "_Holy…fucking…shit_."

In her current state, the brunette was magnanimous enough to let that go. She reached down and picked up the list of revealed shinobi. "This can't be the work of just one person. All of the ninja on this list are rogue, but they're known as missing-nin. Because of that, I don't think whoever's behind this knows about rogue yet, but if they can out them-" here Kichi waved the list. "-then it's only a matter of time before they out the rest of us."

_But who?_ Whisper said pointedly. There was a beat of silence.

Then Sakura had a revelation.

"It's Sound," she blurted out suddenly, lurching to her feet. Seeing the confused expressions directed at her, she elaborated. "_Think_ about it! They've been searching for something for nearly two years now, and do any of the places they hit hold village secrets? No," the rosette shook her head firmly. "The thing they've been searching so hard to find is…us. Rogue."

There was another silence as they absorbed this information, and then Spinner shook her head.

"This is not good," she stated redundantly, heaving herself to her feet. She turned to Sakura. "We must confirm this theory of yours. If this is true, then the Sound village is much more powerful then both the villages and rogue are aware of. If they are to come after us, we must be prepared. And we must know why."

The old rogue's hands blurred for a moment in a complicated jutsu, and then two small pieces of paper were in her hands. She offered one to Kichi and one to Sakura.

"Here is the name of the contact that sent me the report and her location. If anyone else attempts to read the paper other then the two of you, they will see nothing. The two of you will find out how she got her information." Spinner's dark sapphire eyes glinted. "If rogue must war with Sound to protect our secrets, we will. Pack."

The two scrambled to obey, pulling their possessions together in an almost frantic manner. An hour later, they were almost ready to leave when Spinner pulled Sakura aside.

"I want you to take care of Kichi," the old woman told her, sapphire eyes dead serious. "Do you understand?"

Sakura gaped at her. She'd known that Spinner and Kichi didn't really hate each other, but the world would burn before either of them admitted it. This was more shocking then finding out the rogue could go to war with the villages. "Why in Kami's name would you ask me to do that? Do you actually _like_ Kichi?"

"You know perfectly well that I despise that twisted, arrogant snake of a girl," Spinner told her crankily. "The only reason I want her alive is because she's taking some of my best weapons with her and if she dies I'll never get them back. So keep her alive long enough to return them!"

Through a supreme effort of will, Sakura managed not to snicker. "Sure, Spinner. I'll get your weapons back here safe and sound."

"Good. And speaking of weapons, here," the old woman held out a pair of matched twin knives, sheathed in elegant blue leather. "My gift to you."

Sakura took the knives, eyes wide. She drew one from the sheath and looked at it curiously. The handle was black, the blade shining, good-quality steel, but it was too thin and flat to do much damage. She titled the blade, peering at the handle, and her thumb brushed a hidden latch.

The knife sprang open, a collection of other steel knives clicking out around it to form a sharp half-circle. It was not a knife, but a steel fan. Pulling out its twin, Sakura saw the same was true.

She looked up at the old woman, eyes wide. "Spinner, these are…"

"I designed them myself," her mentor stated gruffly. "Specifically for you. You use them well-don't embarrass me."

"I wouldn't dream of it," the rosette promised fervently. Already she was thinking about the things she could do with the twin fans.

Kichi's thundering steps down the stairs distracted her from her thoughts, and then the brunette was by her side.

"Hey; we ready to go?" she asked breathlessly. Then she noticed the fans. "Oooh, _nice_, babe. Look at the new toy Spinner got me."

Grinning wickedly, the girl unfurled a whip from around her arm. It was steel, made of spiked metal links of chain instead of leather, and there was a lethal spiked weight on the end. It looked dangerous and perfect for Kichi.

"Ooooh…" Eyes wide, Sakura leaned forward to examine the weapon. "Awesome…"

"If we are done gawking like idiots?" Spinner snapped, whopping both of them on the head with her ever-present walking stick. "Could we go save the rogue now?"

"Fine, fine," Kichi grumbled, maturely giving Spinner the finger. "We're going, hag."

"And make it quick!" the old rogue shouted after them, as they stepped out of the house.

Kichi looked at Sakura. "After you, babe."

Sakura shrugged, and the two started to run.

* * *

"And so, we went to see Spinner's informant. She was in…"

Sakura's voice cut off abruptly as something outside the cave rumbled uneasily. Then, the distinct sounds of footsteps crunched near the entrance.

The rogue waved the genin behind her, drawing Nariko. A second later, a figure stood in the entrance to the cave.

Sakura relaxed. "Oh. Hey, Kichi."

* * *

**Yeah, I know the ending was a bit off. I was going to redo the training with Spinner and I really wanted to get in some face time between Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura (It's coming up! Next chapter, swear to God) but I wanted to get this posted before summer ended. So, enjoy! And remember, REVIEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!**


	10. The Third

**Hello again, everyone! Words cannot even begin to describe how sorry I am for not updating sooner. I realize it's been so long all of you were actually wondering whether or not I was continuing with the story, but the good news is, I am. I am starting my freshman year of college this year, so i was completely overwhelmed with everything i needed to do to prepare and i kind of forgot about this story for a while...sorry. So i wrote this next chapter with such speed I'm surprised my hands haven't succumbed to carpal tunnel. Since it has been massively too long since I last updated, I'm going to halt with this tomfoolery and let you read the next chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present day:_

Mariko Kichi grinned, ducking her head to step into the cave, oblivious to the awestruck stares of the three genin in front of her. She gave Sakura an affectionate one armed hug as she did so, managing to duck the slap the rosette sent her way. "Hey, babe. Sorry about the wait-there were thieves up the river; turns out they _haven't_ learned by now not to play with fire-and it took a bit longer then I thought it was gonna. "

"You're Mariko Kichi!" Kai burst out, before the legendary kuniochi could say anything else. Kichi blinked, looking down at the blonde with a wicked smile.

"Guilty as charged, kid."

"You're a lot prettier than I was expecting," Suke piped up, blinking his cerulean eyes at her.

Kichi turned to him next. "Aren't you sweet?" Her smile turned to a full blown grin when Haruna smacked Suke over the head, causing him to glare at her in puzzlement. The young genin refused to look back at him while the fire user looked back at Sakura. "I gotta hand to it you, babe-looks like you picked up a couple of angels here."

The rosette just snorted. "Yeah, okay. They're about as angelic as I am." She looked out into the storm that raged beyond the cave's protection, interpreting some sign the others couldn't see. "Listen, I've got to go. You'll cover things here?"

Kichi nodded. Haruna frowned, voicing the question the other two genin had on their minds.

"What are you doing?"

Sakura just shrugged. "Like I said before, nothing of consequence. " She squatted down before the team, her jade green eyes serious. "Behave for Kichi, alright? I'll be back soon."

Suddenly, Haruna, Suke and Kai all threw their arms around her, taking the kuniochi completely by surprise. She blinked, hesitantly wrapping her arms around them.

"Come back really soon," Kai didn't say as much as command, as the three released her. "Okay?"

Sakura just nodded, her dark green eyes wide. With a small wave and a meaningful glance at Kichi, the rogue slipped out into the rage of the storm and was gone.

"Do you know what she's doing?" Kai demanded instantly, turning back to Kichi.

The fire user laughed. "Yeah-but I'm not going to tell you." She raised a brow at the expression on the blonde's face. "Oh, come on, angel, don't pout. It's unbecoming. Besides, aren't you in the middle of a story already?"

"Right!" Suke exclaimed, as though he had forgotten what he had spent the past three days listening to. "Sakura-chan said you were going to tell us the next part!"

Kichi settled back against the cave wall, wrapping her arms around her legs. She was just as outlandish and stunning as Sakura's descriptions, wearing a simple black dress with a silver sword embroidered over the breast, cut to show the tattoos that decorated her arms and back, with red leather boots that went up to mid-thigh. A katana was strapped in a leather sheath across her back, and no other weapons were visible upon her form. The katana was more than enough. "What part of the story are you up to?"

Haruna thought back. "You and Sakura-chan just left Spinner's house."

"Aaaah." The brunette's head thunked back against the cave, blue eyes wide with remembrance. "You're at _that_ part of the story."

"What do you mean, that part of the story?" Kai's full attention snapped onto the fire user, and suddenly her entire face brightened. "Is this a _good_ part of the story?"

Kichi grinned, showing her teeth.

"Oh, it's a _good_ part of the story alright. If rogue had history books, this would have been a great time in it. Just you wait and see…"

* * *

_Taken from Mariko Kichi's memories:_

_The field is drenched in red. Bodies pile on top of bodies as more red leaks from the grass, the soil soaked through with the substance. Rain washes down from the sky, but even that's not enough to wash away the blood. Rogue versus village, hatred blazing in every eye, and as swords plunge into flesh, spraying more crimson onto the deadly field, over the bodies of their fallen comrades, there's screaming._

_And screaming._

_And screaming._

"_**MOTHERFUCKER!"**_

As was rather normal, Kichi came out of the vision screaming curses.

Breathing heavily, the fire using kuniochi sat down on the edge of the road, putting her hands over her ears. There was still a faint buzz in them from time to time, even with the extra protection layered on them, and now was one of those moments.

"_**I. Hate. That. Vision,**_" she growled vehemently, unable to articulate anything more elegant. She saw Sakura sit next to her out of the corner of her eye; felt the worry in those emerald eyes.

"As bad as before?" the rosette asked, voice tinged with concern.

Kichi took a breath. "Worse, babe. Worse." She stood, locking her hands behind her as she paced. "We've got to make that village before nightfall."

Sakura eyed the setting sun with no small trepidation. "Then we should probably have started moving about two seconds ago."

"Don't waste time with semantics, babe. Move that tight little ass," the brunette chided, and with that, the two kuniochi took to the trees.

"I still don't get why seeing this Samara person is so damn important," the rogue grumbled, leaping lithely through the branches.

Kichi cocked a brow. "She's one of the best spies among the rogue. If anyone would have information on why Itachi and a bunch of other hidden rogue have been suddenly revealed as living, it would be Samara."

"And why would she have access to that information?" Sakura asked.

The fire user swallowed a grin, feeling a bit of the fear that had slipped into her since her vision ease at the prospect of tormenting her beloved rosette. She knew it was probably among one of the many things that was going to send her to hell, but damn, was it fun to do. "Her day job. People tend to tell way more than they should to hookers."

Sakura nearly missed a branch, stumbling over her own feet. Her face was immediately suffused with a bright, fiery red blush. "I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry, I meant escort. That's the politically correct thing to say, right?" Kichi amended, pretending to misunderstand the reason behind the kuniochi's blush. "Well, technically she's an assassin _and_ an escort. But it's probably the latter that gives her the most information. People tend to be more agreeable when you're getting them off then when you're offing them, you know?"

Oh, if only she had a camera. The expression on Sakura's face would have amused her for years to come.

"Do you-_have_-to say it like _that_?" the rosette sputtered, her face now cherry red to the roots of her hair.

Kichi snorted in amusement, her fear, for the moment, forgotten. "Damn, you're a prude. How have I not fixed that yet?"

"I'm not a prude," the rogue protested, her emerald eyes now narrowed in anger.

The brunette just looked at her for a moment, crystalline blue eyes void of emotion. Then she said, slowly and clearly, "Sex."

Sakura blushed brilliant red.

"Oh, shut up. Just shut up," she ordered, before the fire user could open her mouth. "Tell me more about Samara. She's a hooker and an assasin?"

"Yup," Kichi said cheerfully, content with her humiliation of Sakura. "Wouldn't you just love that job? Violence, danger, sex-combines everything you need in life into one, really." Noticing the sudden clenching of Sakura's fists, the fire user went on, "She's a few years older than me, babe; one of Spinner's first pupils. That's how we met-she showed up at the house one day when I was going for that bitch's throat and saved my ass. Didn't realize how important she was to the rogue until years later. She gets information _no_ _one_ else can get-which is why we're going to see her."

Sakura shook her head incredulously, short pink strands waving over her skin. "How could a _hooker_-"

"Her clients, babe," the rogue interrupted, anticipating the question. "She's really quite good at her job, and her clients are among the most influential people in the villages. Most of them don't realize what they're doing, talking to her; she's just sex, for them. And if anyone ever does realize what they're doing, Samara's as quick with a knife as she is with everything else. She's the best in the world with blades-that's where her true talent lies, if you ask me."

"Ah." Sakura was quiet, until they came to a break in the trees. The rosette visibly brightened. "Look! There's the village!"

Immediately, Kichi felt everything in the vision come flooding back. Her stomach tightened, and for a moment she could hear the screams of the dying dancing in her ears yet again. She took a deep breath, crystalline blue eyes narrowing.

"Finally."

The rogue moved towards the village of Star with stealth and quiet grace. Midway between Mist and Lightning, the village was small, and not populated by shinobi. Or at least, not by village shinobi. As Kichi had explained to Sakura on the journey over, rogue had built Star as a meeting place years ago. It still served that purpose, though others, including civilians and village shinobi, populated it now.

The two slowed as they entered Star, more from habit from anything else, as there weren't any guards to stop them. Still, a village was a village.

"When are we meeting her?" Sakura asked gently, keeping her voice low as they crossed into the main street.

"Six, so in about an hour," the fire user replied, voice just as low. "Which reminds me…" she kept her tone light, like she had only just thought of it. "There's just one little thing we have to get settled before we meet her."

Sakura's emerald green eyes narrowed, zeroing in on her best friend. Kichi tried not to fidget.

"What _little_ _thing_?"

* * *

"I am going to _**kill**_ _**you**_," Sakura hissed at her, an hour later. "And I'm not going to be nice about it, either. As soon as we get out of here you better be prepared for hours-no, make that _**days**_-of sheer, bloody, never ending _**torture**_."

"Oh, come on," Nervous amusement filtered through her voice-she was rightfully wary of the killer intent that was emanating from the pink-haired rogue, but the situation just demanded laughter. "It's not that bad. Give it an hour, two hours-you'll be done in no time."

Sakura just shook her head, clearly seething. "I don't understand why I couldn't play the bodyguard. Maybe if you'd have chosen a more mature method of settling it-"

Kichi sniffed. "Rock paper scissors was a completely mature way to make this decision."

The rogue just clenched her teeth. "Dead," she promised, hair just barely ruffling with a small breeze. "Violently, irrevocably, unmercifully dead."

The brunette sighed. "Drama queen."

A burst of laughter overshadowed Sakura's retort, and the wind user glanced over, baring her teeth.

"I understand how you feel, babe," Kichi murmured underneath her breath, able to sympathize now that the death threats were out of the way. "Black tie isn't exactly my thing, either."

Both kuniochi sighed. They were in a large, circular ballroom in an inn called the Dancer; the place designated for them to meet Samara. The room was teeming with people, all dressed in their finest-a fact that would have made both rogue edgy all by itself, but when combined with the sea of bodyguards that were milling around their clients and the lack of readily available exits, the kuniochi were downright twitchy. However, it was probably the fact that she was in a dress that had pushed Sakura's temper so high.

Made of wisps of crimson silk, the dress covered Sakura's back and stomach completely, with a high collar and bell sleeves that hid her tattoos and a mass of concealed weaponry. The short hemline and the dress's tightness added a modern sexiness to the old-fashioned style, and the crisscrossing lines and swirls that folded along the front and back made it unique, as no one could duplicate that effect if they tried. The shapes were made where the fabric pulled across Sakura's scars. Kichi suspected it was that above all else that had put her best friend in such a terrible mood, and she did sympathize, but one of them had to pass for a lady, and that meant one of them had to be in the dress.

"How long are we going to have to wait here?" the rosette snapped, directing one searing glance at the rest of the guests, all of whom were giving her a wide berth. "I thought you said we were meeting Samara at six. It's after six."

"Oh, for Kami's sake, breathe," the fire-user rolled her crystalline eyes, leaning back against the wall. Her sympathy only extended so far. "It's only six fifteen. Besides, there's protocol that has to be followed here—Samara can't just up and walk over to us. Haven't you ever been a part of a secret tryst before?"

"And I suppose _you_ have?" the rogue shot back, scuffing a foot against the floor. Minor cracks began to appear in the marble.

Kichi stared straight ahead, the smallest of sparks running down her chestnut hair. When she spoke, there was acid in her voice. "I think I've done it…once or twice in my time."

Sakura's head jerked up, wide emerald eyes meeting hers. Then she groaned, putting a hand to her head. "Oh, gods. I'm sorry, I didn't mean…look, I'm just cranky. I'm in a dress, my scars are showing, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Just erase that last comment, okay?"

The brunette sighed, tilting her head back. "You're forgiven, babe. We're all a bit on edge today."

"It doesn't help that the stupid bitch we're meeting is now a full fucking half hour late," Sakura grumbled, running an irked hand through her pink spikes.

"So sorry to keep you waiting," said a smooth, sensually accented voice, amused. Sakura whirled around, and Kichi grinned.

"Samara, my favorite little courtesan. It's been far too long."

When Kichi had first met her, Samara had been one of the loveliest women she had ever seen, and it was still true today. The rogue had skin the color of cappuccino and luminous eyes the color of dark chocolate, with pouty full lips curved into an alluring smile under a proud nose and sculpted cheekbones. Silky midnight hair fell in waves past her waist, artfully styled with jeweled silver clips. Her leggy, curvaceous form was draped regally in what it would be polite to call a dress. Silver bracelets jangled on her wrists and ankles.

"Still a flatterer after all these years, I see," Samara laughed as she gave Kichi a hug.

The fire user's grin widened. "You're the only one who ever appreciates my flattery, lovely. Take this one over here—" she jerked a thumb at Sakura, who was now bright red with embarrassment and clashing horribly with her hair. "I flatter her all the time and I barely even get a smile."

"You're lucky your flattery doesn't get you a kunai in the throat," Sakura snapped back, then colored even further.

"She's a feisty one," Samara commented, directing a brilliant smile at the rosette. "Don't worry, I'm not offended at the 'bitch' comment," she added. "I've been called worse in my time—and you didn't mean it, anyway. You're the elusive Haruno Sakura, aren't you? I've heard of you."

Sakura scowled, over her embarrassment. "You know, the most annoying thing about this world is that everyone's heard of me…and I've heard of absolutely nobody."

"You're new," the escort shrugged. "You'll either learn or die. In any case, who you know isn't important at the moment. We have business to discuss."

"Spinner notified you?" Kichi asked, one hand delicately resting on Kosuke. It soothed her somewhat to feel the metal underneath her fingertips, warm with the element it had gifted her.

Samara nodded. "She said you had a vision of warfare—between us and the _villages_. Tell me the message got scrambled."

"Sorry, lovely. It's true, and it's bad," Kichi sighed. "That's why we came to talk to you. Those rogue that were recently revealed are part of it, and we need to know who got that information out."

"I figured as much," the gorgeous rogue admitted. "I was the first to find out about the revealed shinobi, and I immediately sent a list to Spinner. It took a bit of digging and I had to call in almost every favor I had, but I know who's responsible. The Sound village."

Kichi glanced at Sakura, crystalline eyes sharp. "You were right, babe."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," the wind user muttered. Her hands tightened into fists, and suddenly she growled. "_Damn_ it. How the fuck did they get the resources to assemble this information in the first place? They don't have any leadership!"

"They do," Something in Samara's soft voice made the two Sword wielders go quiet. Her next words filled Kichi with dread. "Orochimaru is alive. And he's not alone."

"_What?_" Sakura's voice was barely audible. "Orochimaru died _years_ ago. Sasuke—" she swallowed hard and went on. "Uchiha Sasuke killed him."

"Just like he killed his brother, you mean?" Samara's gaze was penetrating. She pulled a paper from the very low neckline of her dress. "I'm not saying I know how he did it—even I don't have enough pull to find that out—but Orochimaru _is_ alive, and he's working with a partner." She unfolded the paper and held it out to them.

It was unmistakably a photograph of Orochimaru, hustling along an unknown street. The date on the picture was also starkly clear—the photo had been taken one month previous.

Sakura's pale finger touched a part of the picture. "That boy next to him—that's Sasuke. Why would he be allied with the man _he_ killed?"

Kichi peered down, noting the blank-faced teenager that stood by Orochimaru's side. Seething rage poured from the young Uchiha in waves, obvious even in the snapshot, and for a moment, the rogue felt a pang of pity for the child before she remembered. Then she frowned, crystalline eyes moving to a different part of the picture. She tapped the section with a finger. "Who is that?"

There was another man to Orochimaru's left, his face hidden as it turned towards the snake-like missing-nin. It was impossible to see his features clearly, and the body that was visible was well formed, but unremarkable, even the clothes carefully nondescript.

"That's his partner," Samara told them. "They call him 'C'—it was the only piece of information I could get on the man. Whoever he is, he's the only one who seemed to know anyone was watching him at the time. I haven't seen him since, but I'm pretty sure he's the one behind all this, not Orochimaru."

"Why him?" Sakura asked, puzzled. "Orochimaru's not one to share power, and he's clever enough to oust dead shinobi as living."

Even before the rosette finished speaking, Kichi was shaking her head. "Orochimaru's always been a missing-nin, never a rogue. It's true he could have found the shinobi on that list, but only because most of them were known publically as missing-nin, had reputations as missing-nin. But none of the shinobi on the list were _actually_ missing-nin, and if Orochimaru was behind this, he would have found some ninja that were—there _are_ real missing-nin that are pretending to be dead. The only way someone could have ousted all of the rogue on that list would be if they were watching rogue places, and only a rogue knows those exist."

"But all of the shinobi on the list are known to Orochimaru as missing-nin. So this C, whoever he is, knows about the rogue but isn't telling Orochimaru or anyone else in Sound," Sakura frowned, brow furrowing with the revelation. "C is letting him think he's finding missing-nin. But why? Why wouldn't he oust _all_ of the rogue? For that matter, why would he only reveal certain shinobi—to the _villages_, no less? And why would Orochimaru go along with this plan in the first place if he's not the one in control?"

Samara and Kichi exchanged glances, startled by the questions. Kichi was about to say she had no fucking clue when Sakura smacked herself on the forehead.

"Of _course,_" she breathed, thunking a hand against her temple. "It's so _simple._" The wind user turned to Kichi. "He's turning rogue into Sound ninja."

Kichi stared at her. Samara blinked.

Sakura made a noise of frustration. "By revealing only certain shinobi to the villages alone, C is pushing those shinobi back into the public eye. The reason most of the shinobi on the list pretended to be dead was so the villages would leave them alone and they could work on their own agendas in peace. Now, however, the villages will be coming for them—hard. C is going to offer them a way out by giving them a place as Sound shinobi."

"Which is why only the strongest of rogue that were mislabeled as missing-nin were on the list, and why Orochimaru is going along with the plan. He wants more high-class shinobi to control," It was Samara's turn to frown. "But why?"

"Does it really matter?" Sakura asked, sounding almost relieved. "This is good for us, isn't it? It means no one is really targeting the rogue."

Kichi's stomach rolled unpleasantly as another realization slammed into her. "No, it's not good for us at all. There's just one flaw in his plan—us."

Both Sakura and Samara looked confused, uncomprehending.

"I don't get it," the wind user said uneasily. "What's the problem?"

Kichi shook her head. "C and Orochimaru may not be actually targeting the rogue, but they're still putting us in jeopardy. The two of them aren't going to be content with all of the shinobi they just revealed—they're going to want more. And since C knows about the rogue…"

"Oh, Kami," Sakura whispered, emerald eyes widening with shock.

"He'll target us," Samara finished, her sensual voice hoarse with disbelief. "He'll use the same tactic as he did before—either the rogue he chooses become Sound shinobi , or they're revealed to the villages and hunted down. And since most rogue would rather be hunted than become village shinobi again, the other villages will learn about the rogue."

"And the villages will turn on us," Kichi's normally cheerful voice was quiet. "Just like in my vision."

Sakura was chalky white. "Maybe we're overreacting. This can't possibly be true…I mean, we got all that from a _photograph_, for Kami's sake!"

"No, it's true," Kichi said hollowly. She felt in her bones, with the secret sense that let her peer into the future, see the workings of fate. "It's true."

"We have to stop this," The wind user ran a hand through her pink spikes, fingers shaking. "We have to figure out Orochimaru's plan—why he wants these people, what he's using them for. How do we do that?"

"Well, there's only one option, isn't there?" Samara retorted, face grim. The Sword wielders turned to her, eyes hard and ready.

"The rogue will have to infiltrate Sound."

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present day:_

"Wait, wait, wait," Kai broke in, palms out. She waited until she had Kichi's attention. "What the _**fuck**_?"

The rogue laughed. "Now, some people would scold you for foul language, but me, I find it cute," she teased, the smile on her lips widening into her wild grin. "This kinda blows your mind, huh?"

"_Yes,_" the exuberant blond burst out, flinging up her hands. "This is…I mean…shit, you guys have the _worst_ luck in the _world_."

That startled another laugh out of Kichi. "I guess at this point that's how it seems."

"We need to ask you something," Haruna broke in, before Kai could start ranting again. She pointed to Kichi's ears, which were incased in the same odd metal contraptions Sakura had described when first telling of her best friend, plates of steel that conformed to the shell of her ear with rods sprouting up to attach to a small circle over the center. "You said your ears 'buzz' from time to time. Is that a side effect from _those_? Whatever they are?"

The fire user stared at her. "You have _got_ to be kidding." The rogue swung around to look at the other two genin. "Sakura didn't tell you, did she?"

"Nope," Suke piped up. "She didn't tell us anything about you. She said that your past was your business and we would have to ask you about it."

Kichi groaned aloud, rubbing her forehead with the heel of one hand. "That little _idiot._ You'd think she'd realize that in order for the rest of the story to make _any_ sense, my past would have to come out. It's really lucky she has me or we wouldn't get anything done. "

"So what happened?" Kai demanded, in a typically blunt fashion. "How did you become a rogue?"

"Okay," the kuniochi took a deep breath, blowing it out as a sigh. She straightened up, settling her hands on her knees. She opened her mouth, shut it again, then smiled sheepishly, looking up at the ceiling. "Fuck, this is hard."

The genin exchanged looks. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Suke offered tentatively.

Kichi shook her head. "Nah, it's something you need to hear. It's just…I haven't told someone this story in a long, long time…and it's hard to think about, still. Just give me a moment."

Silence reigned in the cave for a time, the three genin unusually quiet. Finally, the rogue met their gaze, took in a deep breath, and started to talk.

"It's like this. For most of my life, I lived as a normal civilian working in my father's store. No shinobi, no rogue ties…I don't think I was ever in a real fight. I was a bit of a sheltered child, believe it or not…the type of person that never got into trouble, never made a scene. Well, all of that changed when I went shopping one day and took a wrong turn. Of course I was soon hopelessly lost and wound up trying the back alleys to get home, when I rounded a corner and saw a knife slash across someone's throat. So I did what any sheltered, untrained young girl would do—screamed and whirled to run. The next thing I know, this boy is holding a knife to _my_ throat. The thing is, he was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen, and just as I was about to cry for help, I got a good look at his face. His eyes…" Kichi trailed off, lost in the memory. "They were pure gold."

The rogue looked down, fingers picking at her clothing. Finally, Haruna delicately cleared her throat.

Kichi shook herself. "Anyway, I just froze. He stared back at me, and I think a good minute passed—felt like hours to me—with him just…just _studying _me. Finally, he looked down at me, the kunai still at my throat, and asked me what my name was."

Kai whistled. "Wow. So what happened next?"

Kichi actually chuckled a little. "After he spoke, I regained my senses and kicked him…in a certain area." Haruna and Kai both giggled as Suke turned pale. He glared at them. "He chocked and dropped the knife, which gave me the opportunity to run like hell back home. Like any normal, sheltered child, I was under the impression that even if I _had _seen this gorgeous boy murder someone, there was no way he would come looking for me. After all, he didn't know who I was, much less where I lived. What I had wrong was, he wasn't a boy."

"He was a shinobi," Haruna realized, gray eyes lighting up in understanding.

Kichi smiled, just a little sadly. "No, angel. He was a rogue, and trust me, we are _much _nastier than shinobi. He showed up in my room that very night which, naturally, scared the ever-living shit out of me—that and the fact that the first thing he said to me was subtly along the lines of, 'I'm here to kill you.' Even then I wasn't much for cowering in fear, so instead of begging for my life, I got pissed. I told him that I didn't damn _care_ why he was there, it was still rude to break into a lady's bedroom uninvited."

Haruna snorted.

The rogue shook her head at the memory, a true grin on her face. "He looked at me for like three minutes and then burst out laughing. He took a seat next to my bed and said, 'If I promise not to kill you, Mariko Hisano Kichi, can I stay?' Even though I was panicking at the fact that there was a murderer in my room—one who suddenly knew my name—I said sure, if I got his name in return. 'Isamu', he told me. 'Just Isamu.' And then, as you've probably already guessed, we fell in love."

There was a heartbeat of silence. Then Kai breathed, "That's so damn _romantic._"

The fire user huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, it was. All the way to the end." She looked at her lap. "I wouldn't see him for months. He would come and go from the village, vanishing as suddenly as he appeared, but every time he came, he always found me—I don't know how he made sure nobody ever noticed. For a while I was still scared of him at first, never having met a shinobi before, much less a rogue shinobi, but Isa was patient. He courted me slowly, away from anyone's watch. I would find presents in my room, little things—a glass swan on my nightstand, a pendant on my dresser. He used to leave different flowers on my pillow—acacia, gladiolas, anemone, white roses. I hope at least one of you is versed in the language of flowers, but if you're not, believe me, all of them mean good things." She pulled back her hair, baring the back of her neck to their sight. A cluster of blue flowers combined with a trail of stars was tattooed there just beneath her right ear, the design ending just above the wings on her back. "These are forget-me-nots, the flowers of true love. They were the last flowers he ever gave me."

Kichi raised her head to the ceiling, crystalline eyes lost in memory. "It was all coded love letters and midnight assignations at first. Even by rogue standards, he lived a dangerous life—the person I had seen him kill in the alley had belonged to a brutal group of rogue that had originally wanted him to join. He had refused because—as he put it—their methods were too brutal even for the rogue world. That group had been hunting him ever since that refusal, but now they also had a different motive—revenge. Between that and the age difference—I was fifteen at the time; he was twenty-six—there were enough reasons for us to meet in secret, behind watching eyes. But one day Isa got word that the rogue chasing him had found out he was in the area around my village, and were coming for him. Fast."

"So he left," Haruna surmised, her eyes already shadowed with sympathy for Kichi's loss.

"No." The one word was quiet, but said with a heat that made each genin flinch. "He stayed behind just a day too long." Kichi took a breath, orange sparks running over her hair as her eyes burned a hot, ethereal gold. "He stayed behind for me."

It was a long moment before the fire user could go on with the story, and then it came fast, the words tumbling over themselves at the rush to leave her lips.

"If the rogue had been coming only for him, Isamu _would _have just disappeared, knowing I'd understand. But when he found out they were coming, he also learned that, somehow or another, they had found out he had a girlfriend in the village. They knew about me. They knew who I was. If Isa went, the rogue would find me and try to torture me into telling them where he had gone. Even if they believed I didn't know where he was. And there was another reason the rogue would come after me as well—ever since I'd met Isamu, a Sword had been appearing to me. I didn't know exactly what it was at that time—Isamu just said it was important, that I should be grateful it was coming to me. It did pretty much the same thing that Sakura's did before she got it, only in my case it was a lot more dangerous. The rogue who were hunting for Isa knew what the Sword was and knew why it was coming to me. They wanted to make sure I never got it."

"Isa said he couldn't take that chance; couldn't leave me to them. He would be fine if they tortured him, he told me, but he couldn't let them hurt _me_. He begged me to leave with him, disappear into the country. It wouldn't be hard, he pleaded. He'd been teaching me the ninja arts—weapons, stealth, jutsu—since we met; I knew enough to stay in the rogue world without him, and together we would be untouchable. He was strong, he told me—he could protect me. He could make sure nothing ever hurt me again. It wasn't to save myself, but to save Isa that I agreed to leave. I knew if he stayed any longer, the rogue would definitely find him. So I left, but luck did not favor us. The rogue found us just outside the gates of my village. We had lingered behind just a day too long."

Haruna's hand whipped out and caught Suke's in a death grip. The boy squeezed her fingers, his face as white as hers and Kai's.

"Isamu fought—I fought, too, without much success—but there were just too many, and they were just too skilled. They went through my village, burning buildings and massacring people just for the fun of it. They burned my father's shop. We were dragged away to some building high in the hills, and in the end—I can't say what happened in that building, I will never say what happened in that building—in the end, I watched as Isa—my beautiful, golden-eyed Isa—was struck down by the leader of the group. They called him Kain. His men were holding me down and hitting me, cutting me, so all I could do was scream and watch past my own pain. He hit Isamu with a blow so severe he couldn't rise, and before he could recover, the man was already cutting him with poisoned blades. Over. And over. And over." With each word came a pulse of heat, and smoke was actually rising from Kichi's skin, curling around the cave like rising ashes. "He would use chakra to heal the worst of the gashes, so he could inflict even more pain, and he made his men force me to my knees over Isa's body, so by the time he was done his blood had washed over every inch of my skin. It took six hours for him to die. And even then it wasn't over."

"Oh, gods," Kai whispered. It was the first thing any of the genin had said in a while. They were all huddled in a pile at this point, and Haruna had hid her face against Suke's shoulder. Some of her shaking might have been from horror, but some of it was also from rage.

"As soon as Isamu was gone, the leader came over. I made myself forget so many details of that day, but I will never forget his eyes. Every day he had tortured me, I had sworn to myself that someday I would get free and take my revenge on that man. No one else could have eyes like him. They were just chips of gray _ice._ He knelt in front of me and made hand seals, too fast for me to follow, but I didn't need to see them to feel the effects of his jutsu. It was bad." Kichi shook her head, a shower of metallic sparks hitting the opposite wall with a hiss, each flickering into a miniature flame before flaring out. "I was assaulted by the sounds; they all I could hear. I heard each slice of the blade into Isamu's skin, every splatter of blood onto the walls, the floor, onto me, every low laugh of the leader, every thump Isa's body made as it jerked and twisted and writhed on the floor. I heard every one of his screams. The sounds of his death repeated, looped over each other, became louder and louder and louder, _and it wouldn't stop._"

There was silence.

"It was in this condition—beaten, broken, and dying—that the men threw me out; I ended up somewhere in the village, though I couldn't tell you where. All of this I heard from the twins later, as I don't remember any of it. At that point, I wouldn't have been able to tell you my own name—all I knew was Isa dying. Scorpio and Widow were village medical ninjas at that time, and they knew about my relationship with Isamu; they were his cousins. They came to heal me. The leader had tortured me physically as well as mentally, and I wasn't expected to survive without extensive healing, but the villagers…the villagers didn't want me to survive. They said it was _my_ fault the village had been attacked by these people, _my_ fault that their children, their husbands, their wives were dead. _I _had brought the rogue into the village—after all, why would they have taken me and that_ boy_ with them if I hadn't lead them here?—and for the deaths of their loved ones, I deserved to die. They threw me out of the village, and the twins as well, just for trying to help me, though I'm sure they would have been tossed out anyway if the villagers had known about Isamu."

Kichi took a deep breath. She looked a little calmer near the end of her tale; the oppressive heat that had pulsed in the room was gone, and the sparks had faded from her hair. Still, her hands were clenched tight in her lap, and her voice was quiet and hoarse with emotion as she continued.

"Because of their personal relationship to Isa, Scorpio and Widow knew a great deal about rogue secrets, and they brought me to Spinner, not that I noticed—I was completely crazy. I am not using an expression. All I heard was Isa dying, and the sights in front of my eyes wouldn't make sense. The one thing I knew other than death was pain, and for some reason, I kept smelling smoke."

Kichi shook her head again, rubbing a hand over her temple. "I don't have anything to tell after that point. I was completely detached from the world for a time, caught along with Isamu as the leader's jutsu imposed his death on me again and again. But one day, I was just sort of jump-started back into reality when the sounds of Isamu dying faded. For the first time in a long time, I heard silence, and I was able to discern my surroundings. I was in a little metal bed in a room filled with sunlight, and I was clenching something in my hand. I looked down and saw the tattoo blazing up my arm and the Sword in my hand. I don't remember grabbing her, but it must have happened at Spinner's place—the men would have killed me outright if it had come to me with them instead of just leaving me to die. 'That is Kosuke,' I heard someone say; the first human voice I had heard in what seemed like years. 'The Sword of Light.' I looked up and saw a guy sitting in a chair next to the bed. I asked him who he was—the first words, apparently, I had said in two weeks. He told me he was Uchiha Itachi, a rogue, and gave me the papers Spinner had on the Swords. The next time he came to visit me, he told me he had designed _these._" A hand went up to trace the metal that plated one of her ears. "After that, I started to come back to reality. Itachi helped me through it, teaching me the things I would need to know to survive as a kuniochi…and before long, I was making my new life as a rogue. " She gave a small little half-smile that didn't reach her eyes. "My first fight was with the only one of Kain's henchman that I managed to find, a rogue named Yasunari—remember him? I was trying to get information about Isa's death, so instead of killing him right off, I carved a K into his cheek. Then he used that chakra-sucking jutsu on me, and fled before I could finish the job. After that, with my chakra temporarily out of the way, I had my first vision. And then I _really_ started to become the only living legendary Sword."

There was silence. Haruna couldn't bring herself to voice her original question, but the fire user explained anyway. "I know this is originally what you wanted to know, so here it devices around my ears are the only things that can prevent the leader's jutsu from taking effect. That jutsu is a genjutsu that plays on a particular sense of the victim, making them hear or see or feel things they actually don't."

"But what are those things, exactly?" Suke ventured to ask, as it appeared it was less painful for Kichi now that her story was over.

"Shields," the rogue replied, almost in her normal cheerful tone. She tapped the part of the device just over her ear, and a small blue dome flared up before fading into invisibility. "Itachi's creations are imbibed with another genjutsu that confines the one previously laid on me. They would do the same to any jutsu or physical attack on any part of the body, and can at times be broadened into shields for my entire person, if the need ever arose. If that need occurs, I would need to remove them from my ears, put them in front of me and then broaden the shield, which would leave me once again vulnerable to the leader's genjutsu."

The four lapsed into silence, and this time, it was Kai who broke it. "Know what's funny?"

Her teammates just stared at her.

Kai turned to Kichi. "You never really belonged to a village at all, did you? I mean, there are tons of things you could have done to end up as a village shinobi, but you didn't."

"That's true," the fire user acknowledged. "I've been rogue since the beginning. It comes in handy—no village can ever trace you, no village shinobi can ever really know your history, and you can assume affiliation with whatever suits you. It's also true that I could have done a lot of things to make my life different, but now, I wouldn't change any of my decisions. In the end, I became the legend that I am completely from choice."

The genin's eyes flickered to her Sword, strapped in deceptively common black leather just as Sakura's was.

"Are we going to hear the rest of the story now?" Suke asked. "You know, with Sakura and the Swords and all?"

Kichi stretched, cracking the stiff joints of her back. "Not yet. Amuse yourselves for a little while, alright, angel?"

"Isn't telling that story the only reason you came here?" Kai asked.

"This is also true," Kichi replied. "However, as I believe I just demonstrated, the events in that story are events that actually occured in the _real_ _lives_ of Sakura, myself, and all the others_, _and while they may not be recent, they are still very much a part of all the parties involved—just as all _your_ memories are a part of you. So while it's perfectly reasonable that you want to hear more of said story, the people telling it may not necessarily be ready to continue. Therefore, sometimes, you're all just going to have to give us a damn moment."

* * *

_Somewhere in the Hidden Sword, present day:_

Genma was not happy.

He was sitting under an extremely pitiable excuse for a tent—really just the remarkably thin sheet that passed as his Konoha-issue sleeping bag propped on two sticks; was it really so hard for them to make it of thicker material, say, _not_ threadbare cotton?—that was un-freakin'-fortunately _not waterproof_, which meant he was still soaked to the bone, and because of the (hateful, despicable, obviously sent by demons to torture him further in the hopes he would kill himself and let his spirit be torn to shreds in hell by their sharp, unmerciful claws) storm that had stolen away his tent before he could secure it with help from its tree-whipping winds and forced him to _use_ the pathetically thin Konoha-sheet (sleeping bag his admittedly gorgeously formed _ass_!) as a means of shelter, he couldn't see more than three inches in front of his face because he had only managed to conjure a ridiculously small fire that he could not, by normal means or ninjutsu, get to grow any bigger to rectify this problem. Added to the fact that he was out of food, his genin charges were out fending for themselves somewhere in this hellhole, and he had lost his beloved senbon, and Genma was most decidedly not happy.

He was also steadfastly refusing to think of home, for whatever he was facing in the Hidden Sword he was sure to remember with the utmost fondness when contrasted against the combined wrath of Naruto, Hinata, Kakashi, Ino, Shikamaru, and Anko. That was, _if_ he survived to get home.

"You just never know with this place," Genma grumbled, wishing he had his senbon to chew on. Then, musing on what had happened to _create_ the Hidden Sword, added, "Never know with anything, I s'pose."

"Thinking of the past?" asked a soft voice.

A lesser shinobi might have jumped out of his skin. As it was, Genma felt he appeared only mildly startled, most befitting a jounin of his caliber. When he had untwisted himself from his tent, picked himself off of the ground, and found at least some of the weapons that had flown out of his sleeves and pockets, he grabbed a kunai and said firmly, "Who's there? Come out so I can see you!"

A shadow moved in the corner of his vision. Purely by instinct, Genma whirled and flung the kunai in his hand, palming another when the shadow twisted deftly to avoid the missile. He had already thrown the second kunai when Haruno Sakura stepped out into the light.

She gave a small half-smile as one pale hand whipped out to catch it. "Hello, Genma."

For a moment he just stared at her, rage filling every corner of his body. "What are you _doing_ here?" he practically snarled.

Sakura practically snarled back, rolling her eyes to the darkened sky. "Why the _hell _does everyone _ask_ me that? For Kami's sake, this is my land—where else am I supposed to _be_, squatting under a rock? I'm not the trespasser here; you are. You—" She shot to the side before the third kunai could make contact with her, back flipping into the darkness to avoid the shruiken he sent spinning after it.

Silence.

Genma turned in a slow circle, sliding senbon into the spaces between his fingers. He sent his senses out, alive for any wisp of movement in the black night, the metal glitter of a weapon, the slightest pulse of chakra. He was unprepared for the whoosh of wind that swept him off his feet, slamming into a tree with a force that made the breath leave his lungs.

He clenched his teeth as he fought for air, hands fisting with anger. Of course she wouldn't have fought honorably, he thought bitterly. He should have remembered what she was.

"That wasn't wise," called Sakura's disembodied voice. He let her talk, tracking the sound of her voice. "Were I in a less charitable mood, I would have taken that attack as a declaration of war—" The senbon left his hand and her aerial twist to avoid them had her passing through the circle of light caused by his meager fire, where he was there with a foot already spinning out in a kick that caught her neatly in the ribs. Instead of stumbling as he expected her too she dropped, and before he could react she slid between his legs with her signature speed, a fist on the back throwing him off-balance as her foot tripped his ankle. He fell but managed to send the second handful of senbon after her, each attached to a small, thin chakra wire. She nearly cart-wheeled over the weapons, small chakra scalpels cutting through the wires neatly from the hand she used for leverage. He cursed under his breath as she disappeared back into the storm.

"Be reasonable, Genma," Sakura said calmly, through the roar of the raging storm. "We all know how well the first war worked out; I don't want a repeat of it."

"So if you aren't here for a fight, then why are you here?" the Konoha nin shot back, hands tightening into fists.

"I'm here as an ambassador of the Hidden Sword," the missing-nin answered him, raising her voice above a crackle of blue lightning. "Our sentries informed us when you entered the territory, but we assumed you were just passing through, probably trying to take a shortcut back home, so we were going to leave you alone."

"So why talk to me now?" Genma straightened out of his attack stance, crossing his arms over his chest. His voice went back to its normal drawl. "Is it the storm?"

"I knew you were smart," she mocked, staying hidden in the night. "Yes, as it matter of fact, it _is_ the storm. You're obviously not very prepared for it, and it would look very bad if a Konoha shinobi inexplicably died in our borders. We want to avoid war at all possible costs."

"I suppose you 'Sword' people are more prepared than I am?" he asked, still suspicious.

"Oh, definitely," Sakura replied. "Storms of this caliber are fairly common here. But you; you're lucky you haven't died. I'm here to take you to a safe house and make sure that doesn't happen."

"And when the storm ends?" Genma challenged.

The woman stepped into the light, rolling her eyes. This time Genma just watched her. "You'll be safely returned to Konoha to face the wrath of your Hokage, which is no doubt absolutely terrifying. You can either take the offer, or stay here to die. Really makes no difference to me besides averting war."

Still the shinobi hesitated. "There were genin who came with me," he said finally. "My team. Are they…"

"Nara Kaida, Hatake Haruna, and Uzumaki Daisuke," she recited, shifting her weight. "I know who they are. They'll probably grow up to be as impressive as their parentage."

Genma's vision went red. "If you've hurt them—"

"Don't insult me," Sakura snapped. "I would never hurt a child. We're searching for them, too. When we find them we'll bring them to the closest safe house—it probably won't be the one you're going to, as we still don't know their location. Then when the storm ends, we'll escort you all out of Sword territory and you can go on your merry way back to Konoha." She half-turned, looking out into the rain. "Now, are you coming or not?"

Genma shifted, glaring at the kuniochi as she waited in silence. At last he growled and moved forward, picking up his bag of meager supplies. "Fine."

Sakura gave a terse nod, and he followed her out into the night.

"This doesn't change what you are, you know," he added a heartbeat later.

Silence stretched out after the statement so long Genma wasn't sure the missing nin had heard him.

"I know," Sakura answered quietly, raising her face to the rain. "Nothing will ever change that."

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present day:_

"Okay," Kichi gave a loud yawn, stretching her arms over her head. "Are we about ready to continue with the story?" She grinned wickedly. "Then again, the three of you do look kinda tired. Maybe I should let you rest a little bit more…"

"Oh, don't even _try_," Kai snapped peevishly. "We have been waiting _forever_—you are telling us the next damn part of the story right now!"

The kuniochi eyed her. "You're a little spitfire, aren't you?"

The blonde growled.

"Okay, okay," Kichi laughed. "So we left off where? Still at the party?"

"Yup," Suke told her as he nudged a sleeping Haruna awake. She groaned and rubbed her eyes, nestling against his shoulder, and a pink tinge hit the boy's cheeks. "You and Sakura were still talking to Samara."

"Right," The brunette nodded, pillowing her chin on her upraised knee. "Alright. So Samara had just told us we were going to have to infiltrate Sound…"

* * *

_Taken from Mariko Kichi's memories:_

"Are you insane?" Sakura hissed, emerald eyes wide as she glared at Samara. "That's the worst idea I've ever heard! There's no way we could infiltrate Sound."

"I didn't say it was the best way; I said it was the _only_ way," Samara retorted hotly, propping her hands on her hips. "We need to figure out what Orochimaru and C are planning, and it's not like they're just going to waltz up and give it to us. The only place we're going to be able to _find_ their plans is their base of operations."

"And just how do you propose the rogue break into a village, huh?" the rosette demanded. "Technically, _we don't exist._ We don't have the resources of villages or even missing-nin to take on an operation of this size without risking exposure. And even assuming it _could_ be done, who's going to do it?"

"What do you mean, who?" Samara's chocolate eyes narrowed. "It obviously has to be you two. You're the Swords, aren't you? It's your job to protect the rogue, and, clearly, we need the protection here—even if you are just a child."

Sakura bared her teeth. A small breeze ruffled her hair.

"Okay, okay, just cool it, will you two?" Kichi interrupted quickly, stepping between them with hands outstretched. "We're not going to solve anything by arguing, alright? Let's work out a plan." She looked at Sakura. "Samara's right, it is the only way—and it's gotta be us, babe. This is why we're here."

The wind user made a strangled noise, then sighed. "Fine," she acquiesced. "But how the _hell_ are we going to do it?"

"With a damn good strategy, that's how," The kuniochi turned to Samara. "Where's your client, lovely?"

The escort shrugged impassively. "He's around here somewhere. We split up to avoid notice…ah. There he is—he's coming to us right now."

All three women followed her finger. Sakura's emerald eyes went wide.

"Oh…my…" the rosette's voice trailed off.

Uchiha Itachi was walking towards them.

Dressed all in black, the hard, lean body of the shinobi showed to clear advantage, the catlike grace of his movements turning heads all over the room as he maneuvered through the crowd. His tight black shirt was unbuttoned slightly to reveal a V of golden skin, the silver of a chain disappearing into his shirt. He wore his hair in a loose ponytail, the ebony locks tossed over one shoulder, and a silver earring caught the light on the top of his one exposed ear.

As gorgeous as the sight was, it was the awestruck look on Sakura's face that caught Kichi's very cunning, very dangerous attention. Naturally, Itachi stopped right in front of the pink-haired kuniochi.

"Hello," he said, in that calm, smooth Uchiha baritone.

"U-um…" Sakura stuttered, a brilliant red blush crawling up her cheeks. "You-you have an _earring_?"

"As do you," Itachi pointed out, one hand gesturing to the pearl and silver drops that dangled from her ears. "Two, if you'd like to be precise."

"That's not…I didn't mean…" The wind user's face was now a bright, fiery red. "It's good to see you," she finished weakly.

Kichi and Samara coughed in unison to muffle their laughter.

Itachi's eyes gleamed as they traveled down her form. "You as well, _Sakura. _Your dress is quite…unique."

Sakura's blush worsened. "Thank you. You look…" she shook her head. "Black definitely suits you."

"Okay!" Kichi said brightly, causing Sakura to jump. Itachi, for his part, just inclined his head towards her. "We need to come up with a plan, so here's what we're going to do. Me and Samara are going to stay here and come up with a list of people we could use to back us up on the job, and Sakura, you and Itachi are going to go dance and come up with a strategy for the break-in. Alright?"

"Wouldn't it be faster if Itachi and I stayed here and all four of us discussed the plan?" Sakura wanted to know.

"Nope," the brunette said decisively. She grabbed Sakura and Itachi's hand and towed them forward; shoving them into the dance floor and slipping back out before the two could react. It was, to Kichi's great enjoyment, a slow song. "Now get to fraternizing—I mean strategizing!"

Samara raised her brows as Kichi returned, leaning against the wall next to her. "It seems to me like someone's playing matchmaker," the assassin teased.

"Damn straight it does," Kichi retorted, her famous wicked grin blooming on her lips. "You know how much I enjoy it. Besides, the two of them have a thing going already—they just need a _little_ gigantic push in the right direction."

"Right." Samara chuckled. "You know, if you really want them together, you're going to have to try being a little more subtle about it."

"I am being subtle," the fire user protested, affronted. "The two of them are expecting me to be openly scheming about getting them together, so I _am_ openly scheming about getting them together, and that way, they won't be suspicious enough to catch all of the subtle and devious things I'm doing to _really_ get them together."

Samara blinked. "My head hurts."

"It's classic misdirection techniques," Kichi huffed.

The escort shrugged, looking at the dancing couple. "Whatever. Lucky bitch—now _there's _a man. She's a strong kid; feisty. A good match for Nariko." The kuniochi studied the two a bit more, brows furrowing. "Does she know?"

"Not yet."

Samara glanced at her sharply. "Does _he_ know?"

"No; it doesn't work that way. If he knew, it would cancel out the effect and power of the event in the first place. Besides, how do you tell someone something like that?" the brunette shook her head. "Even _I_ don't know, not really. I just know it's going to happen—don't know the where, don't know the when."

"Useful," Samara commented dryly.

"Uh-huh," Kichi replied, rolling her eyes. "Damn pain in my ass is what it is. Stupid visions never tell me anything I can use." Her eyes locked onto the figures of Sakura and Itachi, swaying in the middle of the dance floor. She tugged on Samara's arm. "Come on. Let's go somewhere we can read their lips."

"Why, Kichi!" The escort gasped in mock horror, a hand against her chest. "What a devious and underhanded suggestion!" Samara grinned. "I don't know why I didn't think of it myself. But aren't we supposed to be coming up with a list of help?"

The fire user waved a hand. "Oh, please, we know who's helping us. You, Whisper, Spinner, unfortunately, Scorpio and Widow; all the usual people. Kisame and some of that crowd might join in, if they're up to it. Oooh, this spot is perfect—I can practically hear their conversation. Shut up and let me concentrate."

"—have not seen you in quite some time," Itachi was saying, his face as seemingly blank as always. Sakura's was still cherry red as she swayed back and forth in the shinobi's arms. "Though I have heard of your exploits. Spinner has been training you well."

"She's been keeping me busy," Sakura acknowledged with a small smile. "I've learned so much from her it's hard to believe she only trained me for a year. What about the famous Uchiha Itachi? What have you been up to?"

"It has been an…interesting year for me thus far," he replied. "I did not expect to be thrown back into the world of the hunted so quickly."

"Right, the villages," the rosette realized. "Speaking of, shouldn't you be wearing a disguise or something? There are guards all over this place."

"I am under a henge," he said calmly. "It is layered to cloak me from the guards and others who would attempt to bring me to the villages while enabling my true face to be seen to those who need to."

Sakura's brows drew together. "I've never heard of a henge like that. Plus, isn't this place warded against genjutsu?"

Itachi smirked. "Not against genjutsu of mine. This henge is one of my own creation. I suspect it will continue to be useful in the coming months."

"It'll definitely come in handy when we infiltrate Sound," the girl mused. She bit her lip, looking up at the rogue. "I should probably bring you up to speed on all that, huh?"

Itachi shook his head as they turned in a slow circle. "There is no need. I am aware of why we need to find a way to infiltrate the Sound village. I read your lips," he clarified before the kuniochi could ask. Sakura's mouth dropped open.

"You read _lips_?" she demanded, emerald eyes narrowing. "Is this another one of those rogue tricks I need to pick up?"

The shinobi's mouth twitched. "Perhaps."

"Well, who else can do it?"

Itachi considered that. "Kichi, naturally—" here Kichi grinned "—the twins, Kisame, Spinner the Untouchable and her daughter, and the other former members of the Akatsuki."

"So, everyone," Sakura growled.

"Precisely," the Uchiha said dryly.

"Dammit," the girl muttered in annoyance. "How is it that everybody knows these things but me?"

"You are very young," Itachi pointed out. "There are some things that only come with experience."

"I'm not _that_ young," Sakura retorted, stung. "I'm seventeen—for a kuniochi, that's not too bad. How old are _you_, oh wise one?"

He just looked at her for a moment, dark eyes glittering with slight amusement. "Twenty-two."

"Ancient," she mocked.

"I did not say it was about age," he said smoothly as the song switched to a more traditional waltz. He took Sakura's hand in his, guiding the other to his shoulder before grasping her lightly around the waist. Her cheeks flamed red as he brought their faces close. "I said it was about experience, and it is fair to say that I am definitely more…_experienced_ than you are."

"Damn," Samara whispered to Kichi, whistling low under her breath. "They _do_ have a thing going on, don't they?"

"I told you so," Kichi smirked back, crystalline eyes dancing

The wind user's face instantly went tomato red, and she visibly struggled to speak. Finally, the blush receded from her cheeks and a cunning light came into her eyes. She moved the hand that was resting on Itachi's shoulder up, until it lay on the back of his neck, and used that leverage to hook a stiletto-encased leg around his waist just as he pulled her into a twirl. She leaned in close to his ear.

"Do you think so?" she whispered breathlessly.

"Oh, brava," Samara chuckled. "She may be young, but your girl knows a few tricks of my trade, huh?"

Sakura's leg slid back down, very slowly, as Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Impressive," the ebony-haired shinobi drawled, expressionless as always, but his dark eyes glittered with just a hint of amusement—and maybe a little of something more predatory.

"Hell yeah," the rosette retorted. "I may not be as experienced as Samara, but I know what I'm doing. Tell me, what do you pay to be a client of hers?"

Itachi's brow rose a fraction higher. "I would not know. It is only the alias I am using in this instance."

Sakura sniffed. "I'm sure."

Samara smiled. "Your little one doesn't like me," she commented.

Kichi shook her head, the same smile on her lips. "No, she likes you fine." She nodded at Itachi. "Just not near him." Suddenly she grinned. "This is the most fun I've had in a while."

Itachi titled his head. "Are you jealous, _Sakura?_"

The rosette sputtered. "Wha—no, I am _not_ jealous! How could you even—what makes you think—_shut up_," she hissed as Itachi looked at her. "Let's just focus on business. How are we going to sneak into Sound?"

"And our entertainment is over," the fire user sighed. "Well, it was good while it lasted. I just wish I had some idea of how their future was going to go."

"Are you saying you don't?" the assassin challenged with a silky laugh.

"I'm saying I'm getting bits and pieces, and it depends on the path our lives take," Kichi shot back, sticking out her tongue at the willowy escort. "Nothing about fate is set in stone."

The two looked back at the dance floor as the music ended…straight at the empty space where Itachi and Sakura had been standing.

"We're going to have to force them together a whole lot more to get a wedding, aren't we?" Samara sighed in exasperation. "I suggest the whole 'locked in a closet together' situation, though it is terribly cliché."

"Wow," Kichi said dryly, cocking a brow. "Someone's sure getting into the matchmaking spirit, aren't they?"

"Oh, shut up; they're cute together," the escort snapped. "I see them; they're coming back this way."

"Yeah, what time is it? About eight?" Kichi glanced up at the clock. "We need to disappear. You and Itachi leave first; Sakura and I'll slip out a bit later."

"Fair enough." Samara gave a dazzling smile as the other two rogue joined them, taking Itachi's arm. She nodded to Sakura. "It has been a true pleasure, Haruno Sakura of the Storm. I would very much like to meet you again, hopefully under better circumstances." Her eyes moved over to Kichi, twinkling slightly. "Always good to see you, Kichi."

"Safe journey, my friend," the brunette replied. "See you."

Itachi inclined his head to the Swords, and then he and Samara slipped out of sight.

* * *

_Taken from Mariko Kichi's memories:_

"We waited around for about a half hour after that, and then we left the party as well—I think Sakura probably tore that dress into shreds when she took it off; in any case I never saw it again. We were traveling back to Spinner's to set up all the details for the inflitration, but we got…let's say sidetracked…on the way there. You're going to have to pay attention to this part; here, things _really_ get interesting…"

"I still don't understand why you just won't tell me what else the two of you talked about," Kichi complained as she jumped from branch to branch. She had already admitted to reading their lips, so she figured she might as well go in for the kill. "What are best friends for, if not to discuss the intimate details of your relationship with a smokin' hot man?"

"For the last time, we don't have a relationship," Sakura told her, just a bit snippily. "And even if we did have a relationship—_which_ _we_ _do_ _not_," she added quickly when Kichi opened her mouth. "You would still not hear the kind of details that you want to hear."

The fire user cocked a brow. "You know, babe, there are times when your anger makes me sad inside."

"Tough shit," the rosette was snarling, when a huge, deafening, spectacular _crash_ cut off her sentence, and suddenly both of them were ducking as a wave of uprooted trees and dirt and boulders flew over their heads, and the acrid smell of smoke drifted through the sky.

_**BANG.**_

Kichi straightened as a rock crashed into the ground behind her, eyes burning gold and every inch of skin alive with blue and orange flame. As the power inside her rose and coursed through her body, the merest hint of fate skittered over her consciousness—

—_sheltering fire, befriending water, reaching for the sky; the bedrock, the teacher, the protector—_

—and she gasped, inhaling a lungful of smoke. She coughed, eyes watering, and nearly hacked up a lung when a strong hand hit her back, expelling the smoke from her chest.

_Oh, of course,_ she thought sardonically, giving her psychic gift the mental finger as she realized what had happened. _Of course this had to happen now?_

"Are you alright?" Sakura demanded, jerking them to the side as a tree hit the space where they had been standing. Barely waiting for Kichi's nod, she let out a curse. "Whatever's happening it can't be good. We need to get out of here before…" she rambled on, but the fire user was no longer listening.

"Babe," Kichi rasped weakly. She took in a gulp of air and tried again. "Babe, wait."

"…and this smoke…what?" the rosette looked down at her, brows drawing together over worried emerald eyes. "What, Kichi?"

The rogue straightened, trying not to breathe too deeply. She pointed north towards the site of the crash. "We need to get over there—we need to get over there _now._" She looked up, catching Sakura's gaze. "It's a Sword, Sakura."

Sakura's eyes widened and for a moment she just stared at her best friend. Whatever she saw in Kichi's wild eyes vanished her protests, and her mouth tightened into a grim, determined line. "Okay. How do we get over there?"

The brunette pushed a lock of hair out of her face, crystalline eyes darting over the scene in front of them, narrowing as flames and trees and boulders continued to smash into the forest ground. "I'll have to burn us a path through. You keep tight to my side; use your wind to push anything I can't burn out of our way. We have to get to that Sword right _now._"

The younger rogue nodded, winds already swirling around her form, emerald eyes hard and serious. "Alright. Ready when you are."

Kichi closed her eyes, reaching inward for that line of unique power that laced through her. She took a deep breath, and her body once again burst into flame. She opened her glowing gold eyes. "Follow me."

The two raced forward. Any tree, debris, even a couple of boulders that came their way were obliterated from the heat of the flames that Kichi sent out all around them, and anything that didn't perish beneath her fire went spiraling from the force of Sakura's winds. Though both were exceptionally fast, even for kuniochi, there was still a lot of ground to cover, and before they had gotten halfway there another explosion had rocked the forest.

_**BANG.**_

"Goddammit," Kichi hissed as her flames roared higher to protect them from the second wave of shrapnel. "What the _hell_ is going on over there?"

"You're the psychic; you tell me," Sakura snapped back as they trudged forward, the winds around her form increasing. She was edged all around in a faint purple light.

"Smartass," the brunette muttered cantankerously. "Come on."

The two increased their speed. Finally, the two of them burst into the place the twin crashes had originated, a clearing that now looked a lot more like a war zone. There were craters punched into the earth, trees bent sideways, and smoke was rising from the ground in black, billowing waves.

Sakura lifted her arms and sent wind fanning out over the field, cutting through the smoke to expose two crumpled figures splayed in the middle of the wreckage. As the winds pushed the smoke further back, the pale evening light was just strong enough to let them see the bulky shape and light blue skin of the first body, the dark ebony hair fanned out from the second, and, more importantly, the metal glint of the Sword he was clutching in the second's hand.

Kichi had just started to run towards them when Sakura's hand whipped out, faster than lightning, to grab her wrist. The brunette winced internally, knowing what was coming.

"Oh, my gods," the rosette breathed, the words a bit strangled. "Oh… my… _gods_."

Sakura turned to Kichi. She looked absolutely pissed_._

"Kichi," she said, too calmly. "That's Kisame. And the one holding the Sword is _Uchiha Itachi._"

Now Kichi winced externally. "Babe—"

"Did you know it would be him?" Sakura demanded.

The kuniochi hesitated.

"_Did you?"_

"Yes, I knew!" Kichi shouted, fed up. "I had a vision about it almost six months ago, but I couldn't tell you about it! Even Itachi didn't know, and he's the one who got the Sword!"

"What the fuck do you mean, you couldn't tell me?" Sakura yelled back. "You're not the only one with a Sword anymore—didn't you think I had the _right_ to know this was coming?"

"Look," the brunette dropped her voice down to a low hiss. "We can't discuss this now. I know you're pissed at me, but we need to get over there and help, because I can guarantee they need it. I swear to you I will answer every single question you have about this, but right now, _we do not have the time_."

Sakura stared at her for a moment, eyes glowing purple with the force of her rage as winds whipped around her, lifting her hair, her clothes, as lightning coiled over her skin.

"The Sword," she said softly. "What is his element?"

Kichi met her eyes steadily. "Itachi is the wielder of Ichiko—the Sword of Stone."

There was another long stretch of silence. Finally, the violet glow faded from Sakura's determined jade eyes.

"Then we better go save him," she said finally.

Kichi let out a relieved sigh. "Come on."

In a matter of minutes, the kuniochi were at the rogue's side. He and Kisame lay shoulder to shoulder, neither of them conscious and both of them covered with blood. By silent agreement, Kichi broke to examine Kisame while Sakura knelt by Itachi. Crimson trickled from a gash on the Uchiha's forehead, and when Sakura placed a hand on his chest her fingers came away stained red.

"This is not good," the rosette muttered to herself. She grabbed a kunai from her belt and with one smooth motion sliced off his clothes, jerking them off his lean frame. His skin was black with blood.

"What is it?" Kichi called, in the process of removing Kisame's shirt.

"Blunt force trauma to the skull, and the shoulder and wrist are broken, badly." Her hands fluttered over his chest, alight with healing green chakra. "Three cracked ribs, none broken thank the gods, and right here, it looks like someone punched a _hole_ in his chest, right below the heart—these are burn marks." Fingers traced over the injuries as her brow furrowed. "What about Kisame?"

"There are bones sticking out of both his legs," Kichi told her, seriously for once. "I think it's safe to say those are broken. He's got slash marks all over his body, and…oh. Oh, Sakura, he just coughed up blood."

"Oh, no." The rosette darted to Kisame's side as the shark-nin groaned again, spitting red onto the sand next to him. "Shit, he's got broken ribs, and this time one of them punctured a lung. I'm re-inflating it now but it's not going to hold up for long. _And_ he's been poisoned—I have a serum that can help with that, the one I use in my food, but the poison has already done damage to his organs." Sakura looked up, jade eyes wide and determined. "We have to get him to a rogue hospital fast; otherwise he's not going to make it."

"Who the hell did this to them?" Kichi breathed, from where she was bent over Itachi's motionless form.

"I think I have an idea," Sakura said grimly. "I'm more interested in how they got away…Kisame's broken legs, Itachi's broken arm—those aren't battle injuries. They broke those falling from a _very_ large height, which probably made the craters both of them are in. The huge, smoking, six feet deep craters, I might add."

"Well, that I already figured out," the fire user passed her a scroll. "Take a look at that."

One hand still healing Kisame, the medic nin unfurled the scroll. "A transportation jutsu?" Her eyes flicked to Kichi, then back at the scroll. "Handy, except for the damaging landings. Itachi must have used this on himself and then Kisame, my guess is after he got a hole ripped in his chest…it explains some of his injuries."

"But not who gave the rest of them," Kichi commented, eyeing Sakura as he bent back over the ex-Akatsuki members. " 'Fess up, baby."

"He's stable…at the moment," the wind user announced, moving from Kisame back to Itachi. "I've seen these types of injuries before…on people back in Konoha. And the poison inside Kisame is snake venom."

There was a heartbeat of silence before Kichi's eyes narrowed. "This was Orochimaru."

"Not just Orochimaru," Sakura murmured, so quietly the fire user wasn't sure she was supposed to hear it. "It was Orochimaru and one of his very best students."

"And who is that?" Kichi prodded.

Sakura was just about to answer when suddenly Kichi stiffened. "Do you sense that?" she asked the younger rogue.

Sakura froze as the chakra senses washed over her, too. Slowly she stood, one hand still gripping the kunai she had used to remove Itachi's shirt.

"Two from the west…and two from the east," the girl listed the approaching ninja blankly, her voice flat though her eyes blazed. "And I know almost all of them."

"Who?" Kichi kept her voice low.

Sakura turned to face her best friend, a sardonic smile twisting her lips. "It seems I'm about to have a team reunion." She looked out over the field.

"The ninja from the west are the only two of my old teammates who are still loyal to Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto and the Copy-nin himself, Hatake Kakashi. And the one leading from the east is Orochimaru's best student…Uchiha Sasuke."

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present day:_

"Damn," Haruna whistled, leaning forward to brace her elbows on her knees. "The two of you can get a _lot_ done in a day."

Kichi laughed out loud. "Well, not exactly the response I was expecting, angel, but okay. I guess it's not as bad as some of the other things you've heard about our lives."

"Uh-oh," drawled a light, somewhat amused voice from the cave entrance. "What part of this are we up to? Kichi, tell me you kept it clean."

"I resent the implication," Kichi sniffed. "Even after twenty years, babe, you're still bad at casual greetings."

"You're one to talk," Sakura retorted as she came into the cave.

"SAKURA!" The genin scrambled towards the entrance, latching onto Sakura and nearly knocking her onto the floor.

The legendary rogue laughed. "Okay, okay, jeez. I was only gone for like three hours, no need to squeeze me that hard."

"Suck it up and deal," Kai snapped, in her customarily blunt manner.

From her position on the floor, Kichi grinned. "I like them," she observed. "They have a good sense of justice."

In the midst of her genin pile, Sakura glared at her best friend. "Help."

Kichi's wicked smile widened. "Alright, kiddies, come on. Give our girl a chance to take a breath—you've punished her enough for now."

"Fine," Haruna grumbled. Sulkily, the three of them climbed off the rosette and settled back against the wall.

Sakura hopped up from the floor and stretched, cracking her back. "Oooh, that's much better," she sighed, making her way to her normal place besides Haruna and Kichi. "It's good to be back here."

"So," Kai drew out the word shrewdly. "Where'd you go?"

The rogue titled her head, resting her chin on her upturned knee. "Nowhere." She grinned at the groans. "Come on, enough of this whining. Don't we have a story to get back to?" She looked at all of them. "How far did you get, anyway?"

"Itachi just got his Sword and you guys just sensed our parents," Suke told her. "And Uchiha Sasuke," she added as an afterthought.

"That's _it_?" Sakura demanded incredulously. She turned to Kichi in exasperation. "That's as far as you got? Are you kidding me?"

"Don't look at me like that; it's not _my_ fault," the fire user said in indignation. "I had to tell them about my past since _someone_ got all honorable and refused to share it. That took up a little time."

"What I don't understand is how our parents got there," Haruna interjected, already used to breaking up these kinds of useless fights amongst her own team. Though it wasn't saying much, she _was_ the mature one. "Weren't they supposed to be looking for you in Mist?"

"Well…" This time it was Sakura who drew out the word. She held up Ino's journal. "Let's find out, shall we?"

She passed the book to Kichi. "Here. You do the honors."

Kichi raised a brow, and started to read.

"Kakashi-sensei and I had only been in Mist for about two months when we got an emergency, black-level message from Old Lady Tsunade. Missing-nins known to be dead, missing-nins killed _years_ ago, had been seen walking around alive. That bastard Uchiha Itachi was _alive_. That pissed me off, but I was also kinda excited. I mean, if Itachi was alive, then it was pretty much a sure thing Sasuke would be hunting him, and then I would have a chance to bring him back to Konoha again. Our previous mission was null and void, and now, we had to try to find out how these missing-nin had hidden from us this long. Our best chance to do that was to find Itachi, and all available ninja were to search for him. That meant us. About a week after we received the Hokage's message, we got a tip about Itachi's location…"

* * *

**I realize that i promised some face time between Sakura and the members of her old team in this chapter, but it was way too long for me to include that in here, so its going to have to be in the next chapter. I also realize that this means im leaving you on the edge of yet another cliff-hanger. What can i say, i like them. Please, please, please review; tell me what you think. Thank you!**


	11. The Surprise

**Hello and Happy Holidays! As always, I'm going to start this off with the required apology for taking eons to update this story. I truly am sorry, but college is…well, fucking amazing, to be blunt, not to mention time consuming. And since I'm sure none of you really want to hear about my college experience, and are instead mentally shouting at me to hurry the hell up and get the next chapter of the story already, I am going to stop dallying and do just that. Thanks so much.**

**Enjoy! (Hopefully…)**

**

* * *

**

_Konoha Village, present day:_

"Naruto?" Shikamaru slipped into the Hokage's office, prepared for his usual search for his friend beneath mounds of paperwork. Instead, he found the ninja sitting behind his desk, holding a sheet of paperwork in his hands.

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. He wasn't called the lazy genius for nothing. "Is that the latest report from Neji?"

"No," Naruto replied flatly, not taking his eyes from the page. "This is." He inclined his head towards another sheet of paper on his left. "They were just about to approach the boundaries of the Hidden Sword."

The dark-haired jounin felt a spark of joy and anticipation jolt through him at the thought of getting his daughter back, and then confusion skittered through him. "Then what are you holding?"

"A note," the Hokage replied tersely. "From Sakura."

Shikamaru froze. At that instant, every thought in his carefully ordered and tactically brilliant mind slipped out of his head. He finally recovered enough brainpower to blurt out, "_Excuse me?_"

"You heard what I said," Naruto snapped, uncharacteristically angry. "It's a note from Sakura. Here." He handed the jounin the paper. "Read it."

The lazy ninja took the note, frowning down at the words:

_My old friend,_

_Just a little something to make sure you're thinking of me _

_in the days to come. Are you ready?_

_Sakura._

The _U_ in the signature was shaped like a miniature fan.

"We're already thinking of her. Ready for what?" Shikamaru asked. As sharp as he was, even he couldn't deduce much from the words on the page, and in any case, Sakura had long since become someone hard to predict.

"I don't know," Naruto said darkly, leaning back in his chair. "I have no idea what she's planning, but I do know this—if she hurts my son, I will kill her with my bare hands. So help me gods." He sighed. "Thank Kami Neji is close. She won't have the opportunity to hurt our children."

Shikamaru was silent for a long moment, sinking into the chair in front of the Hokage's desk. There was no way to tell what he was thinking. Finally, he said, clearly reluctantly. "Naruto….Sakura herself is a genius. It's possible—extremely probable, in fact—that she anticipated this attack. And if that's true, our children are not the only ones who could be in danger."

"I realize that, and that's exactly why I sent Neji and Kiba," Naruto countered, leaning back in his chair. "They've both fought her over the years; they both know her style, and I'm pretty sure they can handle her long enough to get our children."

"If anybody can slip into the Hidden Sword and break out with a hostage, it would be Neji," Shikamaru agreed. "But it's also true that if anyone has the skill to stop someone from slipping into a village and breaking out with a hostage, it 's Sakura."

"Yeah," Naruto muttered, then suddenly pounded his desk with one fist. "Dammitt! I hate this! I—" He growled, surging up from his desk as his hand flashed over the papers, stirring them into a cloud. "_Fuck!_"

Shikamaru just watched him as he stood with his back to the room, breathing hard. Silence drifted across them, hot and stifling.

"You know," he said softly. "There was a time when we would have trusted her with our entire village."

The blond stared out the window. "Yeah, I know." He sighed. "But that was a long time ago."

* * *

_Hidden Sword, present day:_

"Okay," Sakura returned from outside of the cave, dumping two rabbits with senbon holes in their necks onto the floor. She caught Kai's resentful look and raised a brow. "Don't look at me like that; it's not _my_ stomach that's growling loudly enough to vibrate the cave. If I hadn't stopped the story to hunt, we wouldn't be eating these as fast as I can cook them. Or are you telling me that you'd prefer to starve?"

The blonde genin opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by an incredibly loud gurgle from her stomach. She sighed. "Fine. But can we at least eat while Kichi reads the next part of the story? You can't exactly just stop in the middle of the first fight with our parents—or _their_ parents, anyway," she added, hooking a thumb at Suke and Haruna.

Kichi gave her a flirtatious wink. "I'll do you one better, angel. I'll read while she cooks. And before we continue, I should warn you…" Forbiddingly, her eyes flickered to Haruna, whose eyes narrowed in wariness. "Some of my actions in the next few parts, you're probably not going to like."

"I really, really hope I just imagined that comment was directed at me," Haruna muttered. Kai and Suke exchanged looks of mutual interest.

Kichi didn't reply. Instead, she opened up to her page in the journal.

* * *

_Taken from Ino's journal, from the memories of Uzumaki Naruto:_

"The anonymous tip we had gotten told us that Uchiha Itachi's was located near an abandoned village called Star. I still have no idea what he was doing over there; maybe he was using that place as a hideout? Anyway, Mist was closer to the coordinates than any other village, so me and Kakashi-sensei were picked to handle it. We got there as fast as we could…"

"Come _on,_ Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled in between gasps, bouncing from tree to tree with almost frantic speed. "We have to catch him before he leaves! He could be gone by now!"

"Relax, Naruto," Kakashi said calmly, keeping pace beside him. He wasn't even breathing hard. "We won't know anything until we're close enough to sense him, and besides, it's foolish to assume that he's there anyway. This is just a follow-up of an anonymous tip; we shouldn't assume it's fact."

Naruto shook his head stubbornly. "No, he's there. I _know_ he's there."

` Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, you shouldn't—"

_**BANG.**_

"Whoa," Naruto ducked instinctively, though nothing had happened in the immediate area. He straightened to see a large plume of black smoke coming from the trees about a hundred miles away. "What was _that?_"

He looked over at Kakashi, who was staring at the smoke with a narrowed eye, a serious expression on the portion of his face that was visible.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said obliviously, waving his hand in front of his teacher's face. "What _was_ that?"

"I don't know," Kakashi said finally, his dark gray eyes straining to focus on the smoke. Suddenly his eyes widened "Naruto."

"What is it?" the blonde had just started to ask, when:

_**BANG.**_

Another plume of black smoke rose next to the first, but Kakashi waved off Naruto's exclamations. "That smoke…is right where our tip said Itachi would be. And I sense…" he hesitated, then just decided to say it. "Sasuke."

"_What?_" Naruto exploded. "Sasuke-teme is there? Come on!" He made to take off instantly in the direction of the smoke.

"Naruto, wait!" Kakashi called sharply. The blonde didn't stop, and wasn't aware when Kakashi started to follow him, still yelling.

_Sasuke,_ he thought passionately, ignoring Kakashi's warnings. _I'll save you this time. I'll bring you home._ His cerulean eyes narrowed in determination. _You can believe it._

_

* * *

_

_Taken from Mariko Kichi's memories:_

"You're kidding," Kichi said flatly, not a hint of playfulness in her voice. "For the sweet love of all things holy, tell me you're _fucking_ kidding. This is a hell of a time to have a team reunion, baby girl. Especially when one of them works for that goddamn snake."

"Don't yell at me; I didn't _plan_ this," Sakura snapped back, a hint of violet flashing in her emerald eyes. "I wasn't really looking forward to this meeting in the first place, and I _really_ wasn't looking forward to seeing the one who works for Orochimaru ever again."

The fire-user paled. "I don't know the other chakra signature—that's not Orochimaru _with _him, is it?"

"No, thank the gods. He must have started the fight and then sent S-his student to finish his work once Itachi teleported," Sakura replied, kneeling by the Uchiha's side yet again. Her gaze flicked to the green tattoo that swirled on his forearm once and then away. "Which is extraordinarily lucky for us, because right now we have enough problems to deal with."

"Yeah? Like what?" Kichi remained standing, her posture tense and wary as she tracked the shinobi heading their way, in more ways than one. While her chakra kept track of the ninja's physical proximity, her psychic sense was picking up waves of strong emotion coming from either approach. There was a hint of anticipation, a touch of sadness mixed with determination, but most of all, there was anger. Anger weighed down the air.

"Like the two of them dying," her best friend retorted harshly. The brunette snapped to attention. "I can't save them here, Kichi—not when my old team is coming to slit our throats. And if S—" she took a deep breath and resolutely forged on. "If Sasuke sees his brother here, he'll do anything to kill him, and we won't be able to stop him if we're trying to protect and heal Itachi at the same time. And in this state, all Sasuke would have to do is get one hit while we're distracted—and Itachi dies."

"What about that transportation jutsu? Can we send them to Safeheal using that?" Kichi demanded, snatching the paper from the ground near Kisame and scanning it. She felt disappointment well inside her. "It only works for one person. We can only send one person per scroll."

"They must have had two of the scrolls," Sakura groaned, dropping her head until her forehead touched her knee. "There's a way out of this; I know there is. I just need a minute to _think_…"

She was quiet for a long time, and, dimly, Kichi registered that the shinobi were getting closer.

"Kisame," the rosette said suddenly. She raised her face, something glittering in her emerald eyes. "If we can only send one person, it has to be Kisame. Itachi could survive for hours out here, but Kisame… his wounds are far more serious than Itachi's; he'll die in half an hour if he doesn't get the help he needs."

"And what about Itachi?" Kichi demanded, something close to panic rising in her chest when she realized just how close the village shinobi were getting. "We can't just leave him out in the open!"

"We're not," Sakura said grimly. She rose to her feet, looking the fire-user right in the eye. "I have a plan."

She spoke quickly, the invisible threads of excitement that coated her words tickling Kichi like warm breath.

The brunette frowned for a moment after she finished. "Of _course._ That could actually work… But it's going to be tricky, with the Sharingan and all. Are you sure you can—"

"Of course I can," Sakura said sagely. "I spent years studying Sharingan; I know how to counteract it."

"Didn't you tell me that was a borrowed Sharingan? Isn't there a difference?"

Sakura glared at her.

Kichi sighed. "Alright, I'm in. It's not like we have time to come up with another plan anyway." She moved over to Kisame's side. "I'll do the transportation jutsu and send him to the Safeheal Scorpio and Widow are at; the twins will know he's from me and won't waste time bugging for a favor. You take care of Itachi."

"Got it."

Suddenly, their heads both snapped up, bodies going rigid. "They're almost here," Sakura said unnecessarily.

Kichi looked at her best friend. "Ready, babe?"

Sakura's eyes glittered. Carefully, one of her hands went down to touch the metal fans that rested on her belt while the other hand stroked her Sword. "Ready," she replied.

"Bring it on," the fire-user muttered, taking the whip Spinner had given her out of her weapon's pouch and winding it around her wrist. She turned and fixed her eyes on the tree line.

They didn't have to wait long.

* * *

_Taken from Ino's journal, from the memories of Uzumaki Naruto:_

"Naruto, _stop_!" Kakashi demanded, racing behind him. The blonde ignored him. "_Naruto!"_

"Alright, teme!" he declared, bursting into the clearing with his usual grace. "I'm dragging you home this time, belie—" The sentence died in his throat. Stunned, he could only gape at the person in front of him.

"_SAKURA?"_

His former teammate stood in the middle of the field, green eyes leveled straight at his face. She was paler then snow; her beautiful, silky pink hair had been chopped off into a series of uneven pink spikes, and those were _tattoos on her arms._ There wasn't an item of clothing or weaponry on her that wasn't black, and the loose shirt she wore covered her back and stomach completely while baring her much-more muscled arms to the air. A fleshy scar shaped like an _X_ was visible, stretched over the inside of her left elbow where it hung by her belt, cut between her two tattoos. And there was a katana sheathed in smooth black leather resting against her back, one black-gloved hand curled gently around the hilt. Besides her and the kuniochi who stood next to her, there wasn't a single other person on the field.

She looked like a mercenary. She looked like a killer. However she looked, she certainly didn't look like Haruno Sakura. She looked…like a missing-nin.

And he hadn't believed Shikamaru when the genius had described her.

Sakura's lips curved into the barest hint of a smile. "Hello, Naruto," she said softly. "The last time I saw you, you were leaving to go on a mission." She turned her head, just a little, to look at Kakashi. "With you, Kakashi."

The jounin met her eyes steadily. "Sakura," was all he said, so quietly if they hadn't been ninja none of them would have heard it. Then, a little louder, "I knew I would see you here. Where's Itachi?"

_What? How did he know that?_ Naruto thought furiously, before remembering brushing off his sensei's words as Kakashi had shouted behind him. _Oh. That must have been what he was trying to tell me…_

" 'Fraid I can't tell you that, Kakashi," Sakura said softly.

There was a moment of silence as the former teammates just looked at each other, each of the three motionless.

"Damn," said a new voice, cheerfully. Naruto's head whipped towards it. "Babe, you never told me your old sensei was _wicked_ hot."

The blonde stared. Standing next to Sakura was the single most outlandish person he had ever seen. Red boots hugged her legs all the way to the middle of her thighs, leaving a band of golden skin uncovered before reaching a pair of appallingly short black shorts. A backless black top covered a short part of her stomach, the V in the front just low enough to let a hint of her fiery red bra show over her breasts. Her chestnut brown hair was bound in metal wire, and metal flashed at her ears. Tattoos also swirled around her arms, and her fingers kept playing with something silver draped over one wrist. And slung across her back was a katana sheathed in smooth black leather.

All in all, her appearance was so distinctly _strange_ that Naruto almost found himself forgetting what she had just said—almost.

Sakura turned to look at the other kuniochi. "Seriously?" she said dryly. Naruto saw exasperation glittering in her eyes, but also a slight bit of amusement and—gratitude? "_Seriously?"_

"What?" the unknown kuniochi protested innocently. "I'm just saying; he's a very beautiful man. Don't tell me you never noticed. I mean, I know you prefer dark hair, but I like mine just a touch lighter. And just look at all those muscles…"

"Alright, enough," their former teammate cut in, shaking her head. "We aren't here to gawk at my old sensei, remember?"

"Hmm, I suppose we're not," the brunette missing-nin sighed. "No matter how gorgeous his bone structure is." She winked one crystalline blue eye at Kakashi, who seemed, for once, utterly flabbergasted.

Fortunately for Kakashi, Naruto had just about overstrained his powers of patience.

"Hey, you! Who do you think you are?" the blonde yelled, taking a threatening step towards the unknown ninja. "What are you doing with Sakura-chan?"

"At the moment?" the nin tilted her head. "Conversing with the incredibly dull blonde on her old team. I've heard a lot about you, Uzumaki Naruto—but up 'til now, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt."

Naruto growled. "Why, you—" He started forward, and then Kakashi's hand shot out in front of him.

"Wait," the jounin ground out. He looked straight at Sakura, his dark eyes hard. "I'm not going to ask again, Sakura. What did you do with Itachi?"

"And I'm not going to say _this_ again," the rosette replied stonily. "I'm not going to tell you that, Kakashi."

"You should be telling me."

Naruto's head snapped around so fast he gave himself whiplash, and beside him, he felt Kakashi go rigid.

Sakura's vibrant emerald eyes moved, almost lazily, over to the edge of the clearing.

"Ah," she said quietly, almost reluctantly. "Sasuke."

* * *

_Hidden Swords, present day:_

"_EW!_" Haruna shrieked, hands flailing as she attempted to cover her ears. Next to Sakura, who was desperately trying to hold in her own laughter in the corner of the cave, Kai was nearly hysterical. "_EW, EW, EW, EW, EW!"_

Kichi winced. "Now, just calm down, angel—it's not what you think—"

"_You were FLIRTING with my FATHER?" _the normally composed silver-haired genin screeched incredulously.

"You thought Kakashi-san was better-looking than _my_ father?" Suke demanded just as incredulously. He was promptly ignored, though it was about at this point Kai started laughing so hard tears streamed down her face.

"Okay, so it _is_ what you think, but it's not _my_ fault; I mean, damn, I was only doing it to keep him off-balance! It's not like I did it specifically _to _you; it was twenty years ago—and I even warned you about this, remember?" the legendary rogue said defensively. "Besides, if you'd seen your father back then, even you'd have to agree that he was sexy as all hell—"

Haruna's pain-filled scream drowned out the rest of the sentence.

"Whoa." Sakura jumped, hands going reflexively to her ears. "Are you trying to make me _deaf?_"

"He looks old enough to be my grandfather! My _great_-grandfather!" Suke protested again. "I mean, come on—the only part of his face you can see is his _eye_!"

"I don't need these images in my head," the young genin wailed in desperation, completely ignoring both Suke and the older kuniochi. "It's bad enough with just him and my mother, I don't need you thrown in there, too…"

"How is it my fault you have a ridiculously sexy father?" Kichi demanded.

"Oh dear sweet merciful gods, enough," Sakura interrupted before Haruna could start screaming again, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. "Kichi, we don't have time for you to keep tormenting the girl, and Haruna, I understand and apologize for the pain and suffering that has just been inflicted upon your soul. Now can you all eat some damn rabbit and stop bickering so you can hear the rest of this fight or not?"

Silence.

"Good," the rosette nodded, satisfied. "Then, if none of you _mind_, I will continue."

"Yes," Kai gasped, popping up from the cave corner with tears in her eyes. "Please, dear Kami, yes." She blinked as Suke, Haruna and Kichi all gave her dark looks. "What?"

Sakura just smiled.

* * *

_Taken from Haruno Sakura's memories:_

Sakura hadn't known it was possible to be this pissed off.

"Sasuke!" Naruto tried to move to the black-haired youth in a blur of speed, but didn't succeed in making it all the way before Kakashi was in front of him, blocking him with one out-flung arm.

"Where is he?" Sasuke snarled, striding into the clearing as crimson flashed in his eyes. The shinobi flanking him on his left was keeping a wary distance, though the smirk on his face radiated oily confidence. From Sasuke's descriptions when they both had still been in Konoha, Sakura knew he wasn't one of Team Hebi—probably simply a random Sound shinobi Orochimaru had sent with Sasuke as insurance. "_Where. Is. He?"_

The rosette was acutely aware of her hot, short-fused temper. She'd been furious before this—learning Kichi had deliberately kept the identity of the third Sword secret had swirled waves of anger through her, so intense she felt the inner power her Sword had unlocked within her rising to fill the wind with her fury. But seeing her old teammates standing in front of her demanding Itachi, so self-righteous in their knowledge of the world, in the knowledge that what they were doing was _right_, so blindingly _arrogant_ about their own power, seeing _Sasuke _again—

Dark clouds rolled in the sky.

"You should leave," Sakura said quietly. "I will not surrender Itachi."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "_Konoha _is protecting him?"

The rosette gave a small laugh. "No, not Konoha, me. Apparently you haven't heard, but I've defected. Surprise!"

Sasuke simply looked at her. "Why would _you—"_

"Sasuke-teme, we'll get Itachi together!" he shouted, interrupting whatever Sasuke was about to say. He ignored Sakura completely, like he always did when Sasuke was present. The old bitterness surged through her, multiplied the force building beneath her skin. " Just—"

"Together?" the missing-nin cut in crudely. "Itachi is _mine."_

Sakura had never felt rage like this. Her power ran in her blood like a vibrating wire just below her flesh, charged the air with breathless, crackling energy that no one but herself and Kichi could identify as anything but the normal tension before a battle, the excess sparking against her skin in small blue flickers. Yet she stood silent and motionless, a pale statue with opaque jade eyes. She knew she was on the verge of something. She could _feel _it, the same way she could feel the hard metal of the fan in her hand on her fingers, the smooth hilt of the katana underneath the tight grip of her leather-shrouded fingers, the cold current of the lightning tracing its way behind the clouds in the sky.

"Itachi belongs to Konoha, Sasuke," Kakashi said in a steely voice, one that left no room for argument. "We tracked him to this place; _Konoha_ will be the ones to bring him to justice."

"Hn. Stay out of this," Sasuke snapped. "This doesn't concern you, Kakashi-_sensei. _I can handle Itachi just fine on my own."

"Really, boy, it's remarkable you've lived this long." Kichi's dry voice cut through the conversation completely, drawing all eyes to her impressive figure. Sakura stood still and let her get on with it; if there was one thing Kichi knew how to do, it was spark an enemy into thoughtless rage. She had an uncanny ability to sense a rival's weak points and crack them into fire. "It's obvious that you _can't _handle Itachi on your own, since you've tried to kill him—how many times is this now, like six hundred?—and he's still breathing. Not that it matters, since we aren't giving him up."

"Don't insult him!" Naruto yelled, a hint of red in his eyes.

"Enough of this," Sasuke spoke through clenched teeth, giving a tight nod to the unknown ninja who had accompanied him. "You, handle the pink-haired kuniochi on the left. I will take the brunette."

Kichi snorted. The ninja took a single step forward…

And staggered back as a flash of silver cut across him, warm blood splashing out in a sudden red arc. As Sakura landed a few feet from him, katana still outstretched, he choked, trying for air, and then he was screaming. For from the cut of Sakura's Sword, blue lightening raced over and into his body, through the blood and into the bones, across the face and into the mouth. The smell of charred flesh entered the air, and he was dead long before the crackling of the lightening had disappeared.

"Oh, my gods," Naruto breathed. "_Sakura."_

Both Kakashi and Sasuke narrowed their eyes, their faces very, very wary.

_Oh. My. Gods. _Sakura stared at Nariko in stunned amazement, in the incredulous silence of the clearing as the others took in the black remnants of the shinobi. The blade slithered with electricity, thin blue streaks over the metal. _She _slithered with electricity, her muscles vibrating with the effort to keep it sheathed for now, keep it tethered. But now, after she had let out for just that brief moment, it didn't want to go back—and she wanted to feel what it would be like to _really _use it.

"Sorry, Sasuke," she told the younger Uchiha, trying for nonchalance as she sheathed Nariko, sluicing off the Sound nin's blood. It sizzled faintly with excess lightning, and she shook with anticipation for the fight to come as the electricity sang through her blood. "I don't get handled anymore."

The fire-user shook her head in mock disappointment, the only one on the field, it seemed, who was completely unsurprised. Whatever had just happened, when this was over, Sakura was going to demand an explanation. "Honestly, sugar, I have to admit I was let down. I expected an Uchiha would be able to choose competent help, at the very least. But then, I shouldn't hold you to your brother's level—he always was exceptional even in his own clan."

The younger Uchiha's gaze sharpened, the darkness around him drawing inward. "Don't you dare compare me to him."

"And why not, when I know him so much better than you do? After all, the last time the two of you really talked was when he was killing your clan, wasn't it?" Kichi inquired with sweet malice. She waved at Naruto and Kakashi. "That whole business is why Konoha wants you back so badly. Surely you didn't think they were trying to get you back because of your strength? It's only your bloodline limit they care about—can't have the Sharingan die out, can we? If Itachi had just killed you like he should have along with the rest of your relatives, we wouldn't be in this mess."

_"SHUT UP!"_ The cry came from both Sasuke and Naruto.

"Oh, please," Sakura snorted, the power within her thudding, thudding, thudding, swirling closer to the surface. She saw a flicker of pulsing purple light out of the corner of her eye. "You don't think throwing a tantrum will get you your precious Itachi back, do you?" Meeting Kichi's eyes, she whispered something on the wind.

_Are you ready?_

The fire-user glanced at her with a strange half-smile, something primal and fiery glinting in her crystalline blue eyes, but she responded in the same cheerfully insulting fashion as before. "Don't worry, babe, I wouldn't count on much of a fight. I don't believe either of our efforts, let alone both, are really needed here. Not all we're defending against is this pitiful village team and Itachi's incompetant little brother."

_On my count, _Sakura murmured.

That broke them. With twin roars of rage both Naruto and Sasuke charged, but Kakashi was suddenly there in front of them both, holding back the straining teenagers with immobile arms.

"Naruto, wait! Sasuke, _stop_!" the jounin commanded harshly, as the Uchiha gave an animalistic snarl, blue-black eyes glittering. There might have been a hint of black swirling over his skin. "She's only trying to provoke you. Both of you, _calm down._"

Kichi arched a cool brow, a smile curling her lips. "Trying, my dear? I'd like to _try_ you."

_One._

"I wouldn't advise it." Kakashi's voice was steady, the one visible eye gray and clear. His body was taut and straight as an arrow, ready even as he continued to hold back Sasuke and Naruto.

Crystalline eyes glittered. "And why not? Aren't you up to the challenge?"

"Alright, teme," Naruto growled suddenly, interrupting the fire user. "You want Itachi dead. We want Itachi dead. We're not going to get anywhere with them in the way."

_Two._

"Hn. Fine," Sasuke hissed. "But after we finish, Itachi is _mine _to kill."

This time there was no mockery in Kichi's smirk. "Oh, sweetheart. Don't make promises you'll never be able to keep."

_"THREE!" _Sakura shouted.

Something bright and crackling shot between Kakashi and the two boys, causing all three to jump, instinctively, away, and when they landed, screeching white-hot flames had formed an impenetrable circle around Kakashi and Kichi, with no way to cross.

Which left Sakura with Sasuke and Naruto.

She smiled at them to cover the rolling knot of emotions in her stomach. She tried to focus on her power, the rising pulse of it that darkened the sky and filled the air with heavy invisible force.

Sakura flicked the remains of the Sound nin's blood from her hair. "Alright, boys. Who's first?"

* * *

_Taken from Yamanaka Ino's journal; from the memories of Hatake Kakashi:_

"So." The obviously insane kuniochi cocked her head, flicking the burning chains of her whip at his face almost absently as the circlet of flames spiraled around him. He dodged quickly, barely landing in time to avoid her next strike. "Why would your village send only two little jounin after someone like Uchiha Itachi? You must be _very _good at what you do, Copy-nin."

"So you've heard of me," Kakashi commented, sliding past another attack. If he could just keep her talking, maybe he could figure out who she was, why she was with Sakura of all people, and why they were protecting Uchiha Itachi. None of this added up.

"Oh, bits and pieces," the kuniochi shrugged, throwing him a disarmingly cheerful grin as he vaulted over yet _another _flash of that damned whip. "You're one of the shinobi we missing-nin like to keep track of. Besides, Sakura's mentioned you a few times, you being her old teacher and all."

He had to work to keep the twinge of nostalgic hurt out of his voice. "Good to know I made an impression. It seems unfair that you've heard of me and I've _never _heard of you."

His careful jab at her pride failed; the kuniochi only grinned, twisting away from the kick he'd slid her way and managing to flick her whip at him almost nonchalantly over her shoulder in the same movement. She was _fast—_it was almost like she was able to anticipate his movements before they happened. "What does fair have to do with anything, darling? But then not telling you a name when Sakura has so graciously provided me with yours would be rude, and I so dislike being rude. You can call me Kichi—and don't bother trying to place the name; I doubt you've heard of me. I keep to myself."

Kakashi flicked through his perfect memory for the name anyway and found nothing. He flung three kunai at the brunette, keeping his voice light. "If you're so solitary, why are you traveling with Sakura?"

"We share a mutual interest. And on a side note, your interrogation skills suck." She deflected the kunai with a casual swipe of her whip-free arm, her own kunai glinting in the light of the flames that roared around them. He saw her foot flash out, and the next thing he knew, Kakashi was flat on his back.

The kuniochi leaned over him, that irritatingly smug grin still on her face. "You didn't think it would be that easy to get me to tell you why we're here, did you?"

"I hoped." Then Kakashi smirked. "Looks like I'll be doing this the hard way, then."

And that was when the exploding tags he had attached to the kunai went off, blowing the brunette off her feet and slamming her onto the ground with a hard thud Kakashi leaned over her.

"You didn't think it would be that easy to get rid of me," he repeated her words coldly. "Did you?"

Her grin widened. "Oh, honey. This is gonna be fun." And the whip flashed out again.

* * *

_Taken from Haruno Sakura's memories:_

They were circling her like wolves.

They had only attacked her twice—swift, probing attacks meant to test whether she was serious about the fight, and, having confirmed that, meant to test what kind of fight it would be. Now, with the dust clearing from the second attack, they circled her in wariness as she held her fighting stance in the middle of the field, one fan in front nearly touching the ground, one fan in back curved to point at the sky.

Still sharp as she was with the lightning that was humming through her blood, whispering along the surface of her skin and over the metal of her fans, Sakura was able to find some irony in their actions. After all, it wasn't too long ago that all three of them would have been watching some missing-nin's movements the same way the boys were watching hers.

"Sakura, it doesn't have to be like this," Naruto pleaded, for the second time since the group had been separated by flames. "Just give Itachi up and come home and we won't have to hurt you!"

She laughed, letting her rage surround the sound. "Naruto, you have no idea how long I've wanted to say this to you. _Shut up._"

She matched them step for step, emerald eyes tracking them with wary calculation. Sasuke was practically vibrating with fury from Kichi's earlier goading, faint black curse marks already spreading over his face, and Naruto, while it appeared as though he was attempting to control it for her sake, was still tight-fisted with the rage that always came upon him when anything to do with Sasuke was threatened. As his friend, she had seen the obviousness of his loyalty as admirable. As his enemy, she saw it as weakness.

This time it was Sasuke who spoke. "Sakura," he said, tonelessly and bored. "Give him to me."

"Fuck off, Sasuke," Sakura replied just as tonelessly. She was so sickof these games. She was so sick of being reminded that, two years ago, she had been the weakest kuniochi in Konoha. She was _so sick_ of being on the defensive.

So instead, she attacked.

Her elbow connected with Naruto's stomach as the edge of her fan cut into his neck, pushing him off-balance, and she heard him give a surprised _oof_ as he thudding against the ground, head bouncing against the dirt. She whirled and blocked Sasuke's shruiken with the back end of her fan, flipping them towards him. He dodged, pulled out his sword, and rushed her.

Metal clanged against metal as she blocked his blows, swiping her fans underneath his sword in between parries. She launched kicks at his knees and calves, flashing back whenever he did the same, and occasionally switched from fan attacks to unarmed strikes.

Naruto's punch whooshed above her head as she ducked, snapping out a kick to his side. He stumbled but managed to avoid her next kick while making hand seals, and the next thing she knew she was in a cloud of bunshin all aiming for her neck. She dissipated clones again and again in a flurry of blows, all the while fighting off the real Naruto and Sasuke, who came after her with single-minded intensity.

Sakura killed two of the remaining four bunshin with quick decapitating slices of her fans and suddenly leapt upward, somersaulting over her opponants and hurling out two shruiken that buried themselves into the last two bunshin, dissipating them. Sasuke's sword swung upwards, and as she landed lightly on the branch of a nearby tree, she felt it just scratch her side.

_Fuck, _she cursed internally. She remembered that Sasuke's sword was always poisoned.

She gave no indication that the blow had landed as Sasuke and Naruto advanced towards her tree, weapons out and ready. From the grim look in their eyes, it was obvious they had finally become serious.

This was going to get bloody.

* * *

**Before you ask, yes, I was planning to have WAAAAY more fighting in this chapter, but as it's getting close to a year since I've last updated I decided to change it to the next chapter. I hope this is enough to tide you over for a while, and I'm sorry for ending it here but its finals week and a girl can only do so much when she's studying frantically for a math final that's going to rape her up one side and down the other. I at least hope you enjoyed it. I will definitely update once Christmas ends and my break starts, however, and then, you'll get to see a lot more action and a lot more plot. Once again, happy holidays!**


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